The message presented by His Excellency Marchal Hermes da Fonseca, President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil on the third of May of this current year, made special reference to the services of the radio-telegraph in the territory of the Acre, expressing himself in the following terms: “The three radio-telegraphic stations that have been contracted for in December of 1910, are now in full working order, those of the Rio Branco and Senna Madueira having been inaugurated in September of 1911 and in February of this year that of Cruzeiro de Sul, which besides speaking with those two and therefore with Manáos, communicates also with Iquitos in the Republic of Perú.” In order to complete this very useful improvement ordered to be done in such a happy hour, there were also contracted for two other stations, one of these being in Xapury and the other in Tarauacá, places having a great future before them and already containing an appreciable population as well as a notable material development. With the installation of those two stations, the territory will be perfectly well equipped in regard to the question of telegraphic communications. As a consequence of the dearness and the difficulties in the means of transport we get the excessive rises in freight, which at times are equal to and are often greater than the value of the merchandise transported; the truth is that the crisis in rubber made them suffer a certain fall and we no longer see such a thing happen as that the shipowner pays for the price of his steamers in two round trips. The dominating principle is that of liberty of commerce. In order to assure regular services on the principal rivers, the Federal Government as well as the Governments of the States of Amazonas and Pará subsidize certain companies whose tables of freight charges are approved by the Public Powers. That these are still very high is shown by the fact of competition which in certain lines takes place between the subsidized companies and private shipowners; the latter, however, not being able to go beyond the tariff tables of the former, they nevertheless obtain freights and passengers which proportion them high profits, demonstrating thus that the tables of freight tariffs of the subsidized companies are still a long way from the maximum of reduction. The Commercial, Industrial and Agricultural Congress which took place in Manáos from the 22nd to 27th of February of 1910, considering this position, resolved to recommend to the Public Powers the remodelling of the actual freight tariffs principally in that part of them which relate to alimentary goods, necessary to the sustaining of the extractors of rubber and in the sense of their being substantially cheapened. Even to-day one of the best businesses in the Amazonic regions consists in chartering steamers for trafficking on the rivers.