Trade is in a rather poor state since the holidays gave in. The amount of matter in the papers is very light, and will remain so, I suppose, until Parliament meets, which time, Dame Rumor hath it, will not be before June. The competition between the Times and Press companies has been and still is ruinous to our trade. It was bad enough, goodness knows, when it was only with regard to the newspapers, but now it has extended into the job-work. When it was strictly confined to the papers, there was no one else in that line to suffer, but now that the rampages have extended into the domain of the jobbing printer, it affects many persons. I hear that the Times is taking work at so low a price that the other offices have no show whatever. Undoubtedly this state of things has done more to bring about the much-talked-of Master Printers' Association than all the efforts of the Canterbury Typographical Association. I understand that a company of masters are at work on the drafting of a schedule of prices, and have asked the aid of the Association as regards the fixing of wages, &c. I am also given to understand that the M.P.'s Association intend inviting the M.P.s throughout the colony to form associations, and to have a council of masters, so as to regulate the trade right through N.Z. I wish them every success in their efforts.