1841-1886
REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PRESENT STATE
ports and to the various public offices, has materially increased, as has also the official correspondence received.
37. Returns are appended, marked A and B, from which it is satisfactory to notice that the British mail packets have arrived with the mails from home with punctuality, that the average time occupied in making the voyage has been less than it was in the previous year, and that 39 days is the shortest time in which a mail has been conveyed from London to Hong Kong viâ Marseilles, and 38 days viâ Brindisi. The return marked C shows that 38 days was also the shortest time occupied by the French packets in delivering a mail from London. On one occasion, however, the French packet arrived without a mail from London. Owing to the communication across France having been interrupted, this mail had failed to reach Marseilles in time; it was brought forward by the following British packet.
38. A return, marked D, is appended of the arrivals and departures of the United States' mail packets at Hong Kong, from which it will be observed that the voyage from San Francisco to Hong Kong has been performed five times in 33 days; and that the voyage to San Francisco has been accomplished on three occasions in 32 days. The average time occupied in the voyage from San Francisco has been 34.4 days against 35 days in 1869.
The Hon. J. Gardiner Austin,
Colonial Secretary.
I have, &c.,
F. W. MITCHELL,
Postmaster-General.
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