D.— 2c.

16. Demurrage will be charged, on each four-wheeled truck detained by the foreign line beyond the prescribed time, 4s. per day or part thereof, bogie trucks, double rate. 17 Sheets will be charged Jd. per mile when in use, and will be subject to the same regulation for return as wagons. 18. Demurrage will be charged on sheets at the rate of 6d. per day 19. Sundays and days when goods-traffic is suspended must not be counted. 20. The Company's officers shall act under the instructions issued from time to time by the General Manager of the New Zealand Government Railways in accounting for and dealing with all interchanged traffic, and shall render such returns to the Eailway Accountant, New Zealand Government Eailways, as may be required by such instructions. 21. The Minister shall be responsible for causing to be collected from the consignees or other persons all proper charges on behalf of the Company which the Company is legally entitled to charge and collect for goods, parcels, and passengers which have passed over the line, which charges may have been properly way-billed and otherwise notified by the Company's officers to the receivingstations on the Government line in accordance with the by-laws and other instructions in operation on the New Zealand Government Eailways. 22. The Company shall, similarly, be responsible for collecting the New Zealand Government Eailway charges on interchanged goods, parcels, and passengers. 23. The Minister shall cause the accounts for interchanged traffic to be compiled and audited for each four weeks or thereabouts in accordance with the practice on the Government lines, and shall cause accounts to be rendered to the Company within four weeks or thereabouts after the close of each accounting period, and there shall be a settlement of account as between the Government lines and the Company's line by cash payment of the balance due from one to the other respectively as may be ascertained from such audited accounts. 24. The Company shall permit any officer duly appointed by the Minister to examine any traffic accounts on its line, if necessary, for accounting and audit purposes, and, similarly, the Minister shall permit any duly-appointed officer of the Company to examine any traffic accounts on the line interchanging traffic with the Company's line. 25. The rates, fares, and charges for the conveyance of all passengers, parcels, and goods upon the Company's line shall be fixed by the Company 26. The Company shall supply the Minister with schedules of such rates, fares, and charges in the form attached, and the Minister may cause the same to be gazetted for the information of the public. All such rates, fares, and charges to be used subject to the general regulations in operation on the New Zealand Government Eailways. Such rates, fares, and charges will be in addition to the rates, fares, and charges which are made by the Minister for the conveyance of passengers, parcels, and goods upon the Government lines. 27 When through-goods are consigned to the Company's station at Wellington for shipment at the Eailway Wharf, the Minister shall perform the shunting from the Company's station free, but for local traffic may charge the gazetted rates for port traffic, such charges to be in addition to the other rates. 28. The Company shall be responsible for payment of all damages or losses to persons or property occurring on the Company's line, unless such damage or loss is clearly traceable to the negligence or error of any Government servant, or to the defect of any Government stock or appliances. 29. The Government, similarly, shall be responsible for payment of all damages or losses to persons or property occurring on the Government line, unless such damage or loss is clearly traceable to the negligence or error of any of the Company's servants, or to the defect of any of the Company's stock or appliances. 30. The Company's rolling-stock shall be correctly tared, numbered, and lettered, to distinguish it from the Government stock. 31. The Company shall pay the Minister for all tickets and stationery issued to the Company's stations. 32. The Minister or the Company respectively, at any time, may cause rolling-stock, the property of the other, to be put off Government or the Company's trains respectively if defective or dangerous, and may forbid such stock from running on the Government or the Company's lines respectively until such defect or dangerous conditions be amended by the Government or Company respectively. In such cases, due notice being given, demurrage will not be chargeable. 33. The Company shall run one train daily from Wellington to Longburn, and one train from Longburn to Wellington, to connect with the Government daily service between Longburn and Wanganui, and a bi-weekly service between Wanganui and New Plymouth. 34. The Company shall nominate an officer in charge of its line with whom the Government District Traffic Manager at Wanganui may communicate for the purpose of carrying on the traffic in terms of this agreement. 35. This agreement shall take effect as from the 9th day of March, 1895, and shall remain in force for twelve months from that date, but is subject to cancellation, in part or whole, at any time on a month's notice being given on either side. As witness my hand this seventh day of September, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five. A. J Cadman, Minister for Eailways. The seal of the Company was hereunto affixed this twenty-eighth day of August, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five. (1.5.) W M. Hannay, Secretary. Approximate Cost of Paper. —Preparation, not given ; printing (1,250 copies), £1 7s.

By Authority : Samuel Costall, Government Printer, Wellington.—lB9s. Price 3d.]

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