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cotton yarns, of the value of £600,866. The exports from Java to the United Kingdom have increased enormously during the past few years, having risen from the value of £13,773 in 1867 to £470,235 in 1871. The total exports from Java to the United Kingdom in 1871 were valued at £470,234. The total value of British home produce into Java in 1871 was £826,476. Shipping. —There are 420 vessels of all sizes registered in Netherlands India. Cinchona cultivation in Java, under the special care of the Government, is increasing yearly. Ceylon. Area, 24,454 square miles. The total population, according to the census of March, 1872, was 2,405,287. Of tie total population in 1870, 2,128,884, including 2,847 military, 4,732 were Britis.tv 13^201 other whites of European descent, and the rest coloured. Total value of imports in 1871, £4,797,952. Total value of exports in 1871, £3,634,358. The staple exports are coffee, cinnamon, cocoa-nut oil, and coir, the respective values of which articles exported in 1871 were — Coffee £2,432,427 Cinnamon 68,410 Cocoa-nut oil 257,770 Coir 45,448 The greatest part of the exports go to the United Kingdom. The great bulk of the imports are from the United Kingdom and from British possessions in India. Matjbitius. Area, 676 square miles. Population, census, April, 1871, 316,01-2. Total value of imports in 1871, deducting specie, £1,807,382. Total value of exports in 1871, deducting specie, £3,053,054. The principal article of export is sugar. In 1871 the quantity exported was 123,000 tons, valued at £2,819,344. Average price per cwt., £1 2s. 7d. The Mauritius has several small dependencies between lat. 3° and 20° S., and long. 50° and 70° E. The chief of these is the Seychelles Islands, between lat. 4° and s°, about 930 miles north from the Mauritius, one of which, Mahe, is 16 miles long by from 3 to 4 miles broad, fertile, well watered, very healthy, and having a population of about 7,000. Mahe, its chief town, has on its north-east side about 100 wooden houses and a garrison of thirty men. Seychelles, a dependency of Mauritius. The staple article of export is cocoa-nut oil. The quantity exported in 1871 was 253,370 gallons. The total value of imports, 1871, was £61,780. The total value of exports, 1871, was £40,598. Eevenuein 1871, £9,787. Total expenditure in 1871, £8,035. Labitan. Area, 45 square miles. Population, 4,898. Total imports in 1870, £122,983. Total exports in 1870, £61,218. The chief articles of export, the produce of the island, or brought into the island from Borneo for exportation, are bees-wax, birds-nests, camphor, coals, gutta-percha, india-rubber, hides, pearls, seedpearls, rattans, sago, tortoise-shell, and trepang. Boeneo (Brunei). The population of the town of Brunei is a branch of the Malay race, and is estimated to number between 30,000 and 40,000 people. The trade is conducted with Labuan, Singapore, and places on the coast of Borneo. The value of exports from Brunei in 1871 was roughly put down at between £40,000 and £50,000, and the imports at £46,000 or £47,000.

THE NAVIGATORS G-EOUP. Eepoet bt Me. Seed. Sir, Custom-house, Wellington, 13th February, 1872. I have the honor to state that, in obedience to your instructions, I left Auckland on the evening of the 30th December last, by the mail steamer " Nevada," for the Navigators Islands, and reached that group at 3 a.m. on the (sth ultimo. The steamer, without anchoring, stopped off the eastern end of Tutuila, and sent a boat on shore to land me at Pango Pango Harbour. It was dark when we left the steamer, but daylight dawned just as the boat approached the shore at the native settlement at the head of the harbour. The natives, on hearing us, turned out in considerable numbers, and rushed into the water to drag the boat on shore and to assist us in landing. Very soon afterwards the sun rose and revealed to us the full beauties of the tropical scenery by which we were surrounded. Cocoa-nut palms, bread-fruit, bananas, oranges, limes, native chestnuts, and other trees covered the small flat on which the native village stood, and extended close down to the beach. Dotted about here and there in the shade of these trees were the natives' houses, and a little distance in rear of the village the ground rose rather abruptly towards the high, bush-covered hills that surrounded the harbour. I had been led to believe'^hat the language of the natives was very similar to that o£ the New Zealanders ; and I was disappointed at finding that, though a dialect of the same Polynesian language, it was so difficult that I was unable to carry on conversation with them. This was the more perplexing, as the resident missionary, the Rev. Mr. Powell, to whom I had letters of introduction, was absent, and had been so for several months. Fortunately one or two of the natives spoke a little English, and came to my assistance,