r.—4,

21

Mail Service concerning tho payment of certain law expenses incurred in New York, amounting to £119 4s. 6d., I have now the honor to inform you that the views expressed in your letter were represented to the Government of New South Wales, and that subsequent correspondence has been exchanged, resulting in a decision on behalf of both Governments to abandon their claim against the Pacific Mail Steamship Company for the amount of the account in question. The sum of £59 12s. 3d., being the moiety of the claim deducted by this Department from subsidies payable to the Contractors, will therefore be refunded, and the necessary release from payment of the remaining half will be arranged by the Government of New South Wales. I have, &c, The Agent-General for New Zealand, London. J. T. Fishee.

No. 44. Messrs. Foster and Thomson to the Hon. the Postmastee-General. Sic,— New York, 29th January, 1878. We enclose herewith letter from Messrs. John Maekrell and Co., of London, also duplicate declaration by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and their sureties, in regard to the New South Wales and New Zealand Mail Service, which we have obtained to be executed by the said Company. We have, &c, The Hon. the Postmaster-General, New Zealand. Foster and Thomson.

No. 45. Messrs. John Mackrell and Co. to the Hon. the Postmaster-General. Sic, — 21, Cannon Street, London, E.C., 10th January, 1878. We have the honor to transmit you herewith a deed of declaration, signed by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and their sureties, sanctioning, for the year 1878, the carrying the mails by such an altered route and at such a rate of payment as may have been or may be agreed upon between yourself and the Postmaster-General of New South Wales and the Company. We shall be obliged by your acknowledging the receipt. We have, &c, The Hon. the Postmaster-General, New Zealand. John Mackeell and Co.

Enclosure in No. 45. To all to whom these presents shall come we, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company of New York, iv the United States of America, John Francis Ure, John Lennox Kincaid Jamieson, and William Pearce, of Glasgow, in Scotland, Engineers and Shipbuilders, trading under the style or firm of John Elder and Co.; and Donald Bobert Macgregor, of Leith, in Scotland, Shipowner and M.P., send greeting : Whereas by a bond or obligation dated the twenty-third day of July, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, and sealed with the common seal of us the said Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and with the respective seals of us the said John Francis Ure, John Lennox Kincaid Jamieson, William Pearce, and Donald Robert Macgregor, we the said Pacific Mail Steamship Company, John Francis Tire, John Lennox Kincaid Jamieson, William Pearce, and Donald Bobert Macgregor, acknowledge ourselves to be jointly and severally held and firmly bound to the Hon. John Fitzgerald Burns, the Postmaster-General of the Colony of New South Wales, as such PostmasterGeneral, and acting for and on behalf of the Government of such colony ; and to the Hon. Sir Julius Vogel, a Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, the Postmaster-General of the Colony of New Zealand, as such Postmaster-General, and acting for and on behalf of the Government of such colony, in the sum of twenty-five thousand pounds of lawful money of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to be paid to the said John Fitzgerald Burns and Sir Julius Vogel and their successors in their respective offices of Post-master-General of the said Colony of New South Wales and Postmaster-General of the said Colony of New Zealand, which said bond or obligation, after reciting certain articles of agreement made and entered into on the twenty-third day of July, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, between the said John Fitzgerald Burns as Postmaster-General of and acting for and on behalf of the Government of the said Colony of New South Wales of the first part, the said Sir Julius Vogel as PostmasterGeneral of and acting for and on behalf of the Government of the said Colony of New Zealand of the second part, and the above bounden Pacific Mail Steamship Company of the third part, relating to and providing for the conveyance by the said Pacific Mail Steamship Company, during the period of eight years to be computed from the fifteenth day of November, one thousand eight hundred and seventyfive, of Her Majesty's mails and all other mails of whatever country or place which the PostmastersGeneral or either of them should at any time or from time to time require the said Pacific Mail Steamship Company to convey between Sydney and San Francisco and between San Francisco and Sydney, and between New Zealand and San Francisco and between San Francisco and New Zealand, and from and to all and every or any of these ports to and from the ports of Honolulu, in the Sandwich Islands, and Kandavau, in the Fiji Islands, according to the routes within the respective times and in manner in the said articles of agreement provided, is subject to a certain condition thereunder written, by which it is declared that, if in case the said Pacific Mail Steamship Company, while the whole or any part of the services by the said articles of agreement in the said bond or obligation recited agreed to be performed ought to be performed, shall not provide, or in case, having provided, they shall not keep seaworthy and in complete repair and readiness for the