7

F.—3

Under this system, the Fijian Office should render statements quarterly to this department, showing the weight of the correspondence of each class conveyed to and from San Francisco. If such arrangement be agreed to, the London Post Office would probably allow to the Fijian Office the same amounts on the mail matter despatched from London as is allowed to the Australasian colonies, viz., — Letters.. .. .. .. .. Is. 3id. per oz. Packets .. .. .. .. .. Is. 2d. per lb. Newspapers .. .. .. .. .. 3|d. per lb. I am accordingly to suggest that the Honorable the Colonial Secretary may see fit to communicate with the Government of New Zealand, with a view to obtaining its concurrence in the matter, and enabling the foregoing proposal to be submitted to the Imperial and Fijian authorities. I have, &c, The Principal Under Secretary, Sydney. S. H. Lambton.

No. 7. Mr. Lambton to the Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington. Sir,— Sydney, 15th March, 1876. I am directed to enclose herewith, for the information of the Postmaster-General of New Zealand, copy of further correspondence relating to the manner in which it is intended to send mails from France for New Caledonia, and to state that Mr. Burns is of opinion that there should be no modification of the terms proposed in the letter from this department to London of the 25th August last, a copy of which has already been forwarded to your office. I have &c, S. H. Lambton, The Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington, N.Z. Secretary.

Enclosure 1 in No. 7. Mr. Page to the Postmaster-General, Sydney. Sir, — General Post Office, London, 10th January, 1876. On receipt of your letter of the 25th August last, I communicated to the DirectorGeneral of the French Post Office the terms on which the Postmaster-General of New Zealand and yourself had agreed to convey by the colonial mail packets between Sydney and San Francisco the closed mails exchanged by France with her colony of New Caledonia; and I also laid before him the plan which you proposed for simplifying the accounts relating to those mails, by arranging that the postal authorities of New Caledonia should account for and pay direct to the New South Wales Post Office the sea rates due for their conveyance between Sydney and San Francisco, leaving any other payments to be settled between France and the American and British Post Offices. I now transmit to you a copy of the reply made by the French Post Office, from which you will see that the Minister of Marine and Colonies, to whom the matter has been submitted, declines to accept your proposals, and that, consequently, with the view of obtaining lower terms of payment, the French Post Office intends for the future to forward the correspondence from France for New Caledonia in the ordinary mails (« decouvert) to this country, prepaid as far as Sydney, accounting for it to this office at the same rates as correspondence for New South Wales—namely, 50 c. per 15 grammes for letters, and If. 60 c. per kilogramme for printed papers, &c. I have informed the Director-General of the French Post Office that it does not rest with this department to fix the rates of charge for foreign correspondence carried by the colonial mail packets between Sydney and San Francisco, and that whatever postage is accounted for to this department on such correspondence, is paid over to the New South Wales Post Office; that this department is unable to say whether your office, after naming its terms, will consent to receive the above rates for correspondence from France addressed to New Caledonia sent via San Francisco and Sydney, but that I will communicate to you the purport of his letter. I have, &c, The Postmaster-General, Sydney. Wm. Jno Page. Sub-Enclosure to Enclosure 1 in No. 7. Mr. Lebon to the Secretary, General Post Office, London. Sir, — Paris, 30th December, 1875. On the receipt of the letter that you did me the honor to write to me on the 19th November last, on the subject of the conditions proposed by the Post Offices of New South Wales and New Zealand for the forwarding enclosed mails in the transit between Sydney and San Francisco, correspondence exchanged between France and New Caledonia by the way of San Francisco, I hasten to submit this proposition to the Minister of Marine and Colonies.