THE PANAMA MAIL SERVICE.

9

E.—No. 2

dated 15th June last, authorizing and empowering me to receive and grant discharges on behalf of the Company for the sums to be received by me on behalf of this Bank under it. I have therefore the honor to request that you will favour me with an acknowledgment of the receipt of these documents, and an intimation that it is the intention of the Government to give effect to them. I have, &c, A. Kerr, The Hon. the Postmaster-General of New Zealand. Manager.

Enclosure 1 in No. 22. Panama, New Zealand, and Australian Royal Mail Company (Limited), Sydney and New Zealand, Sic,— Wellington, 15th June, 1868. On behalf of this Company, I hereby authorize and empower the Manager of the Union Bank of Australia at Wellington to receive that portion of the monthly subsidy payable to this Company in Wellington in respect of the Panama Mail Service, and I further request that you will pay the same to his order on application, and his receipt or discharge for the amount so paid shall be as binding on this Company as if such receipt or discharge was signed by me on the Company's behalf. I have, &c, To the Hon. the Colonial Treasurer, H. B. Benson, Wellington. General Manager.

Enclosure 2 in No. 22. Mr. McMullen to the Hon. J. Hall. Inspector and General Manager's Office, (No. 252.) Union Bank of Australia, Sic,— Melbourne, 26th November, 1868. I have the honor to intimate to you, for the information of the Government of New Zealand, that by letter dated the 15th June, 1868, and for the consideration therein mentioned, Captain H. B. Benson, the General Manager of the Panama, New Zealand and Australian Royal Mail Company, pursuant to due authority from the Directors of the said Company, gave to me, on behalf of the Union Bank of Australia, a lien upon all the subsidies payable by the Government of New Zealand to the said Panama, New Zealand, and Australian Royal Mail Company, as collateral security for advances made and to be made by the Sydney Branch of this Bank, not exceeding £12,000 at any one time ; and that there is now due to this Bank, for money advanced on security of said lien, £9,500 and upward : wherefore I beg respectfully to request that all subsidies payable by the said Government of New Zealand to the said Panama, New Zealand, and Australian Royal Mail Company, shall be paid to their credit with this Bank until said debt shall be fully discharged, with all interest and charges thereon. I have, &c, The Hon. the Postmaster-General, Jno. McMullen, New Zealand. Inspector and General Manager.

No. 23. Mr. G. Eliott Eliott to Mr. A. Keee. General Post Office, Sic, — Wellington, 14th December, 1868. I am directed to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 10th instant, enclosing a notice dated 26th November, 1868, addressed to the Postmaster-General of New Zealand, from the Inspector and General Manager of your Bank, of a lien granted in his favour by the P.N.Z. and A.R.M. Company (Limited), to secure certain advances at the Sydney Branch of the Bank, in which you request the Postmaster-General to pay to the Bank the monthly subsidies payable from time to time to them under the Panama Mail Contract, and also enclose an original order and authority addressed to the Colonial Treasurer from the General Manager of the Company in favour of your Bank, dated 15th June last, authorizing and empowering you to receive and grant discharges on behalf of the Company for money received by you in virtue of that authority. In reply, I am to point out to you that the letter signed by Captain Benson on the 15th June last only authorizes the Manager of the Union Bank of Australia at Wellington to receive that portion of the monthly subsidy payable in Wellington in respect of the Panama Mail Service, while in your letter you ask, apparently, for the whole monthly subsidies which may become payable from time to time under the Panama Mail Contract; and in the letter of the 26th November, from the Inspector of the Union Bank of Australia, he states that there is now due to that Bank by the P.N.Z. and A.R.M. Company, £9,500 and upwards, and requests that all subsidies payable by the Government of New Zealand to the said Company shall be paid to their credit with the Bank until the said debt shall be fully discharged, with all interest and charges thereon. As the authority given by Captain Benson only refers to that portion of the subsidy in respect of the Panama Mail Contract payable in Wellington, amounting to £4,583 6s. Bd. monthly, while your Inspector asks that the whole monthly subsidies payable to the Company, amounting to £10,000 a month, shall be paid to the Bank, I am to request that you and the General Manager of the P.N.Z. and A.R.M. Company may jointly intimate to the Government the precise sum which it is desired may be paid by the Government to the Bank on account of subsidies which may from time to time become 3

No. 22 of this series.