TENDERS FOR MAIL-SERVICE BETWEEN CANADA, AUSTRALIA, AND NEW ZEALAND.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1910 Session I, F-10

F.—lo

1910. NEW ZEALAND.

TENDERS FOR MAIL-SERVICE BETWEEN CANADA, AUSTRALIA, AND NEW ZEALAND.

Laid on the Table of the House of Representatives by Leave.

Tenders for Mail-service between Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Tenders for an ocean-mail steamship service between Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, or Canada and Australia, are invited, and will be received at the office of the Minister of Trade and Commerce of Canada, Ottawa, Canada, until noon of the Ist November, 1910. Tenders to be sent in sealed envelopes, addressed to the Minister of Trade and Commerce, and to be marked "Tenders for Mail-service between Canada, Australia, and New Zealand," and where submitted through the post should be registered. The service is to consist of a sailing every four weeks from Vancouver in the Province of British Columbia, and tenders will be received for proposals for the service on the following alternative routes: — Route A.—Sailing from Vancouver, calling at Victoria, Honolulu, Suva, and Brisbane to Sydney, and return to Vancouver, calling at the aforesaid ports. Route B.—Sailing from Vancouver, calling at Victoria, Honolulu, Suva, Auckland, and Sydney to Melbourne, and return to Vancouver, calling at the aforesaid ports. Route C. —Sailing from Vancouver, calling at Victoria, Honolulu, Suva, Auckland, and Sydney to Brisbane, and return to Vancouver, calling at the aforesaid ports. Route D.—Sailing from and returning to Vancouver, and calling each way at such of the ports hereinbefore stated as may be specified by those submitting proposals. 1. The service to be tendered for so that mails shall leave Vancouver four weeks after the appointed time for the departure of the last steamers under the existing extended contract with the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, which expires on the 31st July, 1911. 2. Alternative tenders to be sent in for terms of three or five years as from the Ist August, 1911. 3. Tenders must state the registered tonnage and passenger accommodation of the steamships to be employed, and the average speed of such steamers, also the annual subsidy required if the contract is for three or five years. Preference will be given, other conditions being equal, to tenderers providing the most satisfactory conditions in these respects, and also as to the refrigerator and insulated space. The vessels to be employed are to class Al, and to run under the British flag. 4. The contractor is to land and embark mails at all ports of call at his own cost and expense. 5. The tenders shall be subject to general conditions, which may be obtained on application, and to all other conditions incidental to such contracts, unless they are inconsistent with the special conditions of this contract. A copy of all the conditions of the contract may be obtained upon application to the office of the- Minister of Trade and Commerce at Ottawa, Canada; the Postmaster-General, Melbourne, Australia; or at the respective offices of the Dominion of Canada and the Commonwealth of Australia in London. 6. The Minister does not bind himself to accept the lowest or any tender, nor to accept the tender providing for the highest speed. F. C. T. O'Haba, Deputy Minister of Trade and Commerce. Department of Trade and Commerce, Ottawa, 9th May, 1910.

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