Early in the year, Sir Robert Gardiner, the governor at Gibraltar, wrote a complimentary letter to Sir John Burgoyne, relative to the companies of the corps under his Excellency’s command. “My opinion of the sappers,” he says, “is everything that you, in your personal, natural, and official station would desire; their movements surprise me, and are proofs of the care and attention of the officers, who must be good tacticians, as well as good engineers.” On the 15th February, five rank and file embarked at Deptford in the ‘Scindian’ convict ship, under Captain E. Y. W. Henderson, R.E., for the Swan River settlement, and landed at Freemantle on the 11th June. The captain had been appointed comptroller-general of prisons, and obtained the authority of Earl Grey, then Secretary of State for the colonies, to take with him this small detachment. The men were experienced as soldiers and tradesmen: one of their number was a competent draughtsman and architect, and another was acquainted with surveying, camp-duty, and the mode of blasting rock. On their arrival in the colony, they were appointed warders over the convicts, as well to keep them in discipline as to direct them in the execution of the various works that might be undertaken for the establishment of a penal settlement and the development of the colony. The party was also intended to superintend the submarine operations required in the removal of the bar at the mouth of the harbour. The rates of working-pay granted to them, ranged between 1_s._ 3_d._ and 2_s._ a-day. A full company has since been added to the command on the recommendation of Captain Henderson, R.E. Late in March one sergeant and twenty-six rank and file embarked for New Zealand, under Lieut. F. R. Chesney, R.E., and landed at Auckland on the 26th August, increasing the detachment there to a half-company of forty-one strong. The removal of this party from Woolwich was occasioned by the loss by shipwreck, near the Cape of Good Hope, of the detachment which sailed for that colony in April, 1849. Fifteen rank and file embarked on the 15th May for China, and landed at Victoria on the 18th October. This was the fifth detachment sent to that country. Two men sent from Woolwich in April, to superintend the laying of asphalte on the government works, arrived at Hong Kong on the 17th June.