E.—No. 4,

28

FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE

Xo. 33. Mr. H. L. Hcrst to Mr. G. Elioii Elioit. (Xo. G75.) Sir,— General Post Office, Adelaide. 12th July, IS7O. Referring to my letter of the 17th May, requesting that you would state under what conditions correspondence from this Colony could be forwarded by the Pacific Mail Packets, and your reply thereto of the 3rd June, I am now directed by the Postmaster-General to request that you would kindly inform him as to whether there would be any objection on the part of your Department to letters intended for the packets in question, being forwarded to you for despatch, provided this office accounted to yours for the postage which would be charged on such letters in New Zealand. I have, &c, The Secretary, General Post Office, New Zealand. H. L. Htthst.

No. 34 Mr. G. Eliott Eliott to the Secretary, General Post Office, South Australia. Sir, — General Post Office, Wellington, Ist August, 1870. I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of 12th instant, No. 675, requesting to be informed whether there would be any objection on the part of this Department to letters intended for the Pacific Mail Service being forwarded to New Zealand for despatch, providing your office accounted to this for a similar rate of postage to that charged by this Department on letters posted in this Colony. In reply, I would again refer you to the letter from the Hon. Mr. Gisborne to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary, South Australia, on the 28th February last, in which your Government is offered full participation in the advantages of this service for the small annual subsidy of £1,500. I am also directed to inform you, that, as it would be manifestly unfair to the inhabitants of this Colony, to forward by this servicD correspondence to and from non-contracting Colonies on the terms you suggest, this Department cannot accept your proposition. The Postmaster-General is also of opinion, that until your Government are sufficiently impressed with the value of the service to be willing to make the small contribution asked, your Department should abstain from using it. With respect to the use you have already made of the service, your Department can make such payment as it may think fit. I have, &c., G. Eliott Eliott, Secretary, General Post Office, South Australia. Secretary.

No. 35. The Inspectoe of Post Offices, New Zealand, to the Hon. the Posthastes-General. Sir,— General Post Office, Wellington, 26th July, 1870. In continuation of my communication to you from San Francisco, of sth May last, I have the honor to inform you that I left that city with the mails on the following day at 6 a.m., and arrived at New York on the morning of the 13th. The mails for London were forwarded next day by the steamer " City of Brussels." While in New York I made inquiries for books and periodicals treating on subjects likely to bo of interest to this Colony, such as railways, mines, telegraphs, agriculture, geological surveys, &c. ; and, besides purchasing works on these subjects, I subscribed, on behalf of the Government, to several periodicals bearing especially on these interests in the United States, with instructions for them to be forwarded regularly to the Library of the General Assembly, at Wellington. After staying four days in New York I proceeded to Washington, where I had the honor of delivering the Despatch for the Secretary of State of which I was the bearer. I had several interviews with the Hon. the Postmaster-General and the Secretary to the General Post Office, respecting the territorial and ocean transit of mails between New Zealand and the United Kingdom, as also of mails to and from British Colonies and Foreign Countries the correspondence of which, when forwarded by this route, need not necessarily pass through the United Kingdom, the result of which is that mails from this Colony for England via San Francisco, and vice versa, will be conveyed through the United States territory in terms of a convention between the latter country and the United Kingdom, particulars of which are stated in a letter subsequently received from the London Office. Respecting correspondence between New Zealand and the United States, and British Colonies and Foreign Countries, as already referred to, the United States Department agreed to submit a draft convention for your consideration, fixing the transit rates to be accounted for by this Department to the United States Office, on correspondence from this Colony for these British Colonies and Foreign Countries. I also informed the Hon. the Postmaster-General that the New Zealand Government were desirous of having a Post Office Money Order system established between the two Departments, on the basis of that established between the New Zealand and the London Departments, but he regarded the fluctuating currency of the United States as an obstacle to such a scheme. I endeavoured to obviate this difficulty by submitting that the United States Department should, for the purpose of this scheme, accept four shillings and twopence sterling, as the fixed value of the gold dollar. This the PostmasterGeneral promised to consider, and to inform you of his decision thereon. I made application to the Hon. the Secretary of State for a file of the State documents, for the New Zealand Government, and received an order from him to Professor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, to whom the distribution of the State documents is intrusted, subject to regulations made by a Committee of the Legislature, in accordance with an Act passed some two years ago. Professor Henry very kindly promised to give me what he could, but, being busy at the time with his annual