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No. 3. The Second Assistant Postmaster-General, Washington, to the Hon. the PostmasterGeneral, Wellington. Post Office Department, Second Assistant Postmaster-General, Division of Foreign Sir,— Mails, Washington, 26th April, 1913. By direction of the Postmaster-General, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter [of 7th April] * * * renewing your proposal that the letter rate from the United States to New Zealand be reduced to two cents an ounce. In reply, I am directed to inform you that this Department is not yet prepared to extend to New Zealand or any other country the two-cent rate for letters. I have, &c, Joseph Stewart, Second Assistant Postmaster-General. The Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington, New Zealand.

No. 4. [Extract from the Report of the Postmaster-General of the United Kingdom for the Year 1911-12.] Penny Postage. The Imperial penny-postage system now embraces the whole of the British Empire, with the exception of Pitcairn Island. Following the reduction to Id. per half-ounce of the postage-rate on letters from Australia for the rest of the Empire, there was an increase of about 33 per cent, in the amount of correspondence sent by letter-post to the United Kingdom. The rates of increase for the first three years after the establishment of penny postage were 32 per cent., 15-4 per cent., and 63 per cent, respectively in the case of correspondence sent to the United States, and 29 per cent., 12-5 per cent., and 36 per cent, in the reverse direction. The average rate of increase for the ten years preceding the introduction of penny postage was about 5 per cent.

Approximate Cott of Paper.— Preparation, not jriven; printing (1;560 copies), £1 ss.

Authority : John Mackay, Government Printer, Wellington.—l9l3.

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