The report for the half-year to 31st March states Fleet.—At the date of the last report, the India, the-first-of the four large mail steamers recently ordered, had started on hier second voyage to Bombay, and the next of these vessels, the China, has now completed successfully one voyage to Australia, and commenced a second in the sume direction. The third ship, the Egypt, has just boon successfully launched, and will be at work early in the coming passen er season, and the Arabia will follow later on. The Cundiu and Socotra, the two large carrying steamers, constructed primarily for the Australian trade, have been in the meantime temporarily employed in connection with China and Japan. Recently: the directors contracted with Messrs, Caird and Ca. for two 20-kuas steamers of 2,000 tons and 6,500-horse power, which will be employed under the new Mail Contract, in carrying the mails between Brindisi and Port Said, and which ignoted in the Fleet List as the Isis Two of the oldest steamers on
sold.
Ush, the Khedive and Pekin, have been New Mull Contract.—One of the tenders made by the directors for the mail services to India, China, and Australia having been accepted by Her Majesty's Postmaster-General, " contract has been entered into for the execution. of these services, which will run for a period of seven years, from February of next year. The work will be of the same character as that now performed by the company, but will involve a higher speed and ut the same time a reduction in the amount of the subsidy of £20,000 per annum. In this. respect. the contract follows {the example of its predecessors in establishing a more arduous service, with lower scale of remuneration.
It may not be uninteresting to observe at the present moment that the company's first mail service was undertaken in the Yisbon and the Peninsular ports, which, ear 1837, for the conveyance of mails to
until than, had been sent by sailing "wind and weather permitting. company's public work, therefore, eommenced in the year in which Her Majesty began her long and prosperous. reign. (Silhouette sketches of ship models accompany the report, and convey some idea of the shipbuilding operations of the company during the sixty years.)
General Sumnvary.—The proprietors will not be surprised to learn that the plague and famine which have for the last six months prevailed extensively in India, and, unfortunately, still continue to prevail, more or less, have produced very unfavourable results in connection with the trade of that country, and have consequently entailed a loss of revenue to this company, Great inconvenience and a certain loss passenger traffic was also caused by the simultaneous closing of the Italian and French ports to steamers coming from Bombay during the height of the passenger season. The prohibitory action of the Continental authorities "inspired by a dread of the plague, tended at the sime time to disorganised the company's working arrangements, and involved considerable expense in maintaining intact, and without a momentary interrupt tion, the various services coming under the company's programme. The famine has led to a very heavy decline in the shipments from the principal ports in Tedia, with the result that homeward freights have fallen nearly to zero. Fortunately compensation has been found in other directions. The outward trade to the East has been generally maintained, exchange has been more favourable, and occasional trooping' work has been secured. Hence the adverse influences operating in India have been counter-balanced, and the outturn of the half-year's operations compared fairly well with that of the corresponding period of last year, which was, on the whole, above the average.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.