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1883. NEW ZEALAND.

DIRECT STEAM SERVICE WITH GREAT BRITAIN. PARTICULARS AND CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT.

Presented to ioth Souses of the General Assembly by Command of Sis Excellency.

The Government of New Zealand are prepared to receive tenders for the performance of a direct steam service between London (calling at Plymouth) and New Zealand, once each way in every calendar month, for a period of three years from the commencement of the service. This period to be reckoned from the departure of the first ship from the Port of London, and to apply to the dates of the departures of the ships. The homeward voyage may commence later than the month in which the first ship sails from London, according to a date to be named in the tender. The service to be performed will be the conveyance of passengers, emigrants, mails, and cargo, as hereinafter respectively mentioned. Not less than five ships are to be provided, each baing a good, substantial, and efficient screw steamship of the first class, and fully equal to Class 100 Al, Lloyd's .Register, and of not less gross registered tonnage than 3,000 tons, propelled by first-rate engines of adequate power for a continuous speed so as to perform the service within the time hereinafter specified, and having spar-decks, and proper capacity for passengers and cargo, and ample ventilation for passing through tropical latitudes, and with a minimum height in every part between decks of 7 feet; and each ship is to be under the command of a competent captain, having due experience in the command of screw steamships. Each ship is to be furnished with all necessary machinery, tackle, &c, and to be subject to the approval of the Government before being employed. Each ship is to be examined in dry dock on behalf of the Government if emigrants are to be conveyed. The Government are to have full power to inspect the ships, officers, and crew, and object to or suspend the use of any ship which may not be satisfactory to them, or to prevent the employment of any officer, engineer, or crew appearing to them to be ineligible. The chief officer, as well as the captain, must have a master's certificate. The amount of subsidy required in full payment for all services, &c, stipulated for in the contract, except the payments hereinafter mentioned, is to be stated in the tender. The one twenty-fourth part of the subsidy will be paid by the Government on the completion of each service to or from the colony. That payable in respect of the outward service will be paid by the Postmaster-General at "Wellington, and that payable for the homeward service will be paid by the Agent-General in London. If a ship shall not be at the port of departure on the date fixed in each month, and ready and in all respects properly fitted to perform the service, a sum of £100 and a further sum of £100 per day for each noon that may intervene before the ship is so ready and fitted may be deducted from the subsidy by the Government as liquidated and ascertained damages; but the Government may remit or reduce the amount if satisfied that the default shall have arisen from causes over which the Contractors had no control. The service from London to New Zealand is to be performed round the Cape, and the service from New Zealand to London via the Straits of Magellan, or round Cape Horn, calling at St. Vincent. Each .•.way the service is to be performed within 1,200 hours, except that the outward service may ber performed in 1,300 hours, if so stipulated in the accepted tender; the time to bo reckoned according to the time occupied in performing the service between the Port of Plymouth and the port in New Zealand to be selected from time to time as hereinafter mentioned by the Contractors as the port of arrival or port of departure there, as the case may be. The Contractors are to have the option for each voyage of selecting, as the port of arrival or the port of departure in New Zealand, either of the Ports of Auckland, Wellington, Lytteiton, or Port Chalmers, and will be at liberty, before departure on the homeward service, or after arrival on the outward service, to.call at any or other of the said ports, thirty days' notice being given previous to the departure of the vessel, both to the Agent-General in London and the Postmaster-General in Wellington, of the port selected as the port of arrival or the port of departure, as the case may be, and of the other ports intended to be called at, and on what days.