F.—2a

14

crew shall be declared ineligible, the officers, engineers, or crew so declared ineligible shall not be employed in the said services, or if, on any such survey, any such ship or any part thereof, or any machinery, engines, apparel, furniture, stores, tackle, boats, or equipments, shall be declared to have any defect or deficiency, or to be unseaworthy, or not adapted for the said services, the defect or deficiency shall be forthwith repaired or supplied by the Contractors, and the ship, machinery, engines, apparel, furniture, stores, tackle, boata, or equipments shall not be employed in carrying out this contract until such defect, deficiency, unseaworthiness, or want of adaptation for the said services has been repaired, supplied, or corrected to the satisfaction of the Government, or such officers or agents as aforesaid. 6. The Contractors will convey the passengers, emigrants, mails, and cargo hereinafter mentioned by such steamships as are hereinbefore described, one of such steamships leaving London for New Zealand and another New Zealand for London (each calling at flymouth) once in every calendar month for a period of three years, to be computed from the day on which the first of such ships shall leave London for New Zealand. The first ship from London for New Zealand is to leave London on the day of , but the first ship from New Zealand for London may however leave New Zealand on the day of . Each outward voyage shall be made round the Cape of Good Hope, and each homeward voyage through the Straits of Magellan or round Cape Horn. The ships on each homeward voyage shall call at St. Vincent. [*Each voyage shall be performed and completed within one thousand two hundred hours.] | *Each outward voyage shall be performed and completed in one thousand three hundred hours, and each homeward voyage shall be performed and completed in one thousand two hundred hours] ; and such number of hours shall be reckoned according to the time which shall be occupied in performing and completing each voyage outwards between the Port of Plymouth and the port in New Zealand which may be selected as hereinafter mentioned as the port of arrival there, and homewards between the port in New Zealand which may be selected as hereinafter mentioned as the port of departure there and the Port of Plymouth. 7. The Contractors shall have the option on each voyage of selecting as the port of arrival in, or the port of departure from, New Zealand any of the ports of Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, or Port Chalmers, and the ships will be at liberty before departure on the homeward service, or after arrival on the outward service, to call at all or any other of such ports. The Contractors shall from time to time give thirty days' notice, previous to the departure of the ship, both to the Agent■General in London and the Postmaster-General at Wellington, of the port selected as the port of arrival or of departure, as the case may be, and of the other ports at, and the days on, which it is intended the ship shall call. The dates in each month for the departure of the ships from London, Plymouth, and New Zealand respectively shall be from time to time fixed by arrangement between the Contractors and the AgentGeneral, and shall be publicly announced by the Contractors at least one calendar month before the days respectively fixed; and the ships will not be allowed, while performing the service, to touch at any port other than those aforesaid unless from unavoidable circumstances. 8. If from any cause whatsoever, at any time or times, one of the said ships, or any other vessel which the Government shall think fit to sanction being employed for the service, shall not be at the Port of London or at the port in New Zealand which shall be selected as the port of departure there, in due time to be ready to leave, or shall not leave, by noon on the day which may be announced for the departure of the ship, the Contractors shall pay to the Government as and by way of liquidated damages in respect of each such default the sum of one hundred pounds, and the further sum of one hundred pounds for every noon which shall intervene between the noon of the day announced for the departure of the ship and the time at which the ship shall leave the port; but such damages shall not be pa\rable in respect of any delay which shall be occasioned by order of the Postmasters-General or either of them. If, from any cause whatsoever, at any time or times, three noons shall pass after the noon of the day announced for the departure of any ship without the ship being at the port of departure and ready to leave, the Government may forward passengers, emigrants, mails, and cargo, or same or one of them, by any other ship or ships, as the Government may think fit; and the Contractors shall forthwith upon demand pay or recoup to the Government or to the intending passengers all costs, charges, and expenses respectively incurred by them in consequence thereof beyond the sums which would have been payable by the Government or such passengers respectively under or according to this contract. 9. If, from any cause whatsoever, at any time or times hereafter, any voyage shall not be performed and completed within the period of time contracted for, the Contractors shall pay to the Government as and by way of liquidated damages in respect of each such default the sum of one hundred pounds, and if the time which shall be occupied in performing and completing the voyage shall be twenty-four hours in excess of the number of hours contracted for, a further sum at the rate of four pounds per hour in respect of such excess. Provided always that the Government shall have power to remit or reduce any of the sums payable as aforesaid if they shall be satisfied that any such default as aforesaid shall have arisen from causes-over which the Contractors had no control. 10. In consideration of the services hereinbefore and hereinafter contracted to be performed by or on behalf of the Contractors, the Government will pay to the Contractors a sum or subsidy of pounds in respect of every outward voyage, and of pounds in respect of every homeward voyage; and if the Contractor shall complete any voyage or voyages in less than the number of hours contracted for the additional sum of five pounds for every entire hour less than such number. >~ 11. The subsidy (including such additional sum as aforesaid, if any) payable in respect of each outward voyage shall be.' payable by the Postmaster-General of New Zealand, on behalf of the Government at Wellington, to the Contractors, or to an agent appointed by the Contractors to

* Omit one of these paragraphs according to what tender may be accepted.