SAN FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE.

21

E.—No. 4.

INWARD MAIL.

Making the total charge against this Department for conveying these two mails £257 14s. 4d., the principal items being for the newspaper and book portions of the inward mail, on which no postage is received here. I would also suggest that the period fixed in the contract for detention of the steamer at any port free of cost, should, as regards San Francisco, be extended to forty-eight hours, as it may happen, especially in the winter season, from bad weather, accidents, &c, that steamers bringing supplementary mails may not be able to reach New York within the time calculated upon by the London Office, and such mails may, at the fixed date for the departure of the steamer from San Francisco, be within twenty-four or forty-eight hours of that port. To avoid the present delay which occurs at Honolulu, I would further submit, that the steamer should depart from Auckland on the 3rd or 4th at latest, to enable her to reach Honolulu by the 20th, the day on which the steamer from San Francisco generally arrives. 22nd July, 1870. ™ = _ ==ra ,___ rararara _ W- Geat-

No. 22. Mr. J. Tilley to the Hon. J. Vo&BL. Sib,— General Post Office, London, 19th May, 1870. With reference to my letter of this day's date, on the subject of the new mail service between the United Kingdom and New Zealand via the United States, I beg to inform you that, in accordance with the arrangements in force with respect to correspondence addressed to the United States, the mails for New Zealand will be made up in this country at three offices, viz., London, Liverpool, and Dublin; and that, in order to insure the due arrival of them at San Francisco, the bulk of the bags will be despatched at least twenty days in advance of the day fixed for the departure of the packet from that port; such despatch being followed by supplementary mails despatched by two subsequent steamers to Now York. I enclose, for your information, some copies of the notice which has been issued to the public in this country, showing the dates fixed for the despatch of the mails in each month during the present year. The mails from this country will be enclosed in separate bags, marked " Letters," " Books," or " Newspapers," as the case may be ; but when the correspondence of either class is not sufficient to fill a bag, the books or newspapers, or both, will be placed in the letter bag. It would be convenient to this Department if you would cause the mails from New Zealand for the United Kingdom to be made up in two portions, one labelled " Mail for England," to contain the letters—but the letters only —for all parts of the United Kingdom except London, and the other labelled " Mail for London," to contain all newspapers, books, and patterns without distinction, and the letters for London and countries in transit through England ; the bags being marked " Letters," "Books," "Newspapers," respectively, as in the case of the mails from this country. The table of rates now in use for accounting to this Department upon letters sent from New Zealand in transit through the United Kingdom for foreign countries and colonies, by the route of Suez and Southampton, will be equally applicable to correspondence forwarded via San Francisco; but, for the reasons explained in my letter above referred to, with respect to the appropriation of the postage, the form of letter bill which was formerly used for the mails via Panama will not be applicable to the new route. I enclose a specimen of the letter bill prepared for the use of this office, and also a form of letter bill which should be used by the New Zealand Office for mails to this country. When the mails were sent via Panama, as a rule, and correspondence for the Australian Colonies was forwarded by the same route when bearing a special address, it was the practice to send the bags for Sydney separately, and to enclose those for the other Colonies in the mail for New Zealand; and this course will again be followed. It was also the practice, in accordance with a request from your office, to forward to Wellington a duplicate of each of the letter bills sent to the other Colonies ; but, as the mode of accounting under the new arrangement will differ from that under the old, such a course appears to be no longer necessary, and the particulars of the number of bags for the several Colonies, and net weight of their contents, will therefore be entered, instead, on the back of the letter bill for New Zealand. I have, &c, The Postmaster-General, Auckland. Joiin Tilley.

Enclosure in No. 22. (No. 18, J870.) Mails for New Zealand via San Peancisco. The Government of New Zealand have entered into a contract with the " Californian, New Zealand, and Australian Mail Line of Steam Packets," for the conveyance of mails once a month each way between San Francisco, Auckland, and Sydney. 6

Description. Weight. Cost of Conveyance chargeable against Zealand. Eeceipts. lbs. oz. 390 4 10,521 5 1,435 4 £ b. d. £ s. d. Letters Newspapers ... Books and Patterns 131 10 4 17 18 10 Totals ... 12,346 13 £149 9 2