The Auckland Electric Tramways Company, Limited, Lower Queen Street, Auckland. Telephone 318. P.O. Box 549. Bankers, Bank of New Zealand. Head Office, Donnington House, Norfolk Street, London, W.C. This company is a subsidiary of the British Electric Traction Company, Limited, which was registered in 1896. Its directors include such men as Sir Charles Rivers Wilson; Mr. J. S. Raworth, M.I.E.E., the well-known electric engineer; Lord Rathmore; and Mr. E. Garcke, M.I.E.E., the managing director, who has a world-wide reputation as a financier and engineer in connection with electrical undertakings. The British Electric Traction Company (more familiarly known in the land of its origin as the B.E.T.), has from forty to fifty sub-companies under its administration, and it has a capital of £2,000,000 in £10 shares. During the last few years the B.E.T. has been investigating the main centres of the Australasian Colonies with a view to securing concessions in the larger towns for electric traction and lighting undertakings, and thus establishing subsidiary companies in these Colonies. In 1898 it purchased the Auckland Tramway Company, and at about the same time the New Zealand Electric Light and Traction Company obtained a concession from the Auckland City Council to construct and run electric tramways. These two companies, namely—the B.E.T., represented by Mr. Paul M. Hansen, and the New Zealand Electric Light and Traction Company, represented by Mr. W. G. Bingham—vested their local interests in the company now known as the Auckland Electric Tramways Company, Limited, and now (May, 1901) that final arrangements have been made with the City Council and the various suburban bodies, the work of laying down the electric tramway will shortly be commenced. Auckland, the oldest and largest city of New Zealand will, therefore, enjoy the advantages of a thoroughly up-to-date electric tramway service. This service is to consist of about twenty miles (mostly double track) of lines, running through the city and various suburbs, so that many of the districts now suffering from the want of quick and efficient means of connection with the city and other places, will be greatly benefited by the possession of the most modern mode of communication now in existence.