previously, viz., in 1865. Gradual improvements were 

 made from time to time in our mail services, but as late 

 as 1877 the passage from Southampton to Sydney was still 

 long and tedious. Thirty-three years ago I left England 

 for Australia in the P. and O. Company's s.s. " Poonah," 

 a vessel of 3,130 tons, then engaged in the Indian mail 

 service. At Point de Galle the Australian mails and pas- 

 sengers were transhipped into the s.s. "Tanjore," a vessel 

 2,263 tons; on arrival at Melbourne we were again trans- 

 ferred to another of the company's steamers, the "Avoca," 

 a poorly equipped little craft, more suitable for a collier 

 than a passenger boat, finally reaching Sydney after a 

 passage of fifty-two days. In 1877 the Orient Company's 

 steamer "Lusitania" paid her first visit to Sydney and 

 she was followed by the "Chimborazo" and the "Ouzco," 

 vessels of 3,847 to 3,883 tons, making the trip from England 

 via the Cape in hfty-three days, and returning via the 

 Suez Canal. How incomparably superior are these Com- 

 panies' mailboats of to-day, steamers of from 11,000 to 

 12,500 tons, equipped with every modern appliance for the 

 handling of cargo and the comfort of the passengers leaving 

 and arriving at their terminal ports each week with clock- 

 work regularity, and completing their trips in less than forty 

 days, plying to and fro like the shuttle in the loom, weaving 

 the thread of commerce from Great Britain to Australia 

 and back from our island continent to the Mother Land. 



The record of speed and of size is at present held by 

 those splendid Cunarders the "Lusitania" and the 

 44 Mauretania " engaged in the Atlantic trade. These 

 vessels are 790 feet long with a registered tonnage of 

 32,500 tons. They are fitted up with all the luxury and 

 comfort of an up-to-date hotel, and equipped with every 

 modern appliance that skill and science could devise. On 

 her contract trials the "Mauretania" maintained an 



