51

¥.— 6

No. 179. The Seceetaby, General Post Office, Wellington, to the Eepeesentativb of the Canadian-Aus tradian BoYAL Mail Steamship Company, Sydney. (Telegram.) General Post Office, Wellington, 28th February, 1898. Puepose advertising " Miowera's " mails close Thursday week. Please confirm to-day.

No. 180. The Ebpee sent ATI ye of the Canadian-Austealian Eoyal Mail Steamship Company, Sydney, to the Seceetaey, General Post Office, Wellington. (Telegram.) Sydney, 2nd March, 1898. " Mioweea " advertised leave here Monday.

No. 181. The Supeeintendent of Foeeign Mails, Washington, to the Hon. the Postmastee-Geneeal, Wellington. Post Office Department, Office of Foreign Mails, Washington, D.C., Sib,— 3rd March, 1898. I have the honour, by direction of the Postmaster-General, to acknowledge the receipt of your two letters of the 7th January last—one [see No. 165] asking to be informed how articles for and via the United States should be distributed by your mail-agent on steamers conveying mails to Vancouver, and stating the distribution which will be made until the desired information is received ; and the other [not printed] in addition to similar information, announcing that the first mail vid Vancouver would be despatched from Wellington on the Bth January, and enclosing a pro formd timetable of the joint service vid San Francisco and vid Vancouver, with request that any desired changes in the same be noted. In reply, I have to inform you that the time-table in question is satisfactory to this department, but that some changes are necessary in the proposed distribution scheme of articles for and vid the United States. In lieu of the distribution indicated in your letters under reply I am directed to request that you will cause the articles for and via the United States despatched by means of steamers sailing for Vancouver to be distributed in mails labelled as follows, viz.:— " San Francisco City," containing only ordinary, (unregistered) articles addressed for delivery in that city. " San Francisco, Foreign Transit," containing articles destined for the west coast of Mexico and Central and South America. " Chicago City," containing ordinary (unregistered) articles addressed for delivery in that city. " Chicago Dis.," containing ordinary (unregistered) articles addressed for delivery in the States of Indiana, Massachusetts (except the City of Boston), Michigan, New York (except the City of New York), Ohio, and Pennsylvania. " New York City," containing ordinary (unregistered) articles addressed for delivery in that city. " New York Dis.," containing ordinary (unregistered) articles addressed for delivery in the States of Connecticut, New Jersey, and Bhode Island. "New York, Foreign Transit," containing ordinary (unregistered) articles for destinations beyond the United States, except the west coast of Mexico and Central and South America. "Boston City," containing ordinary (unregistered) articles addressed for delivery in that city. " Boston Dis.," containing ordinary (unregistered) articles addressed for delivery in the States of Maine and New Hampshire. " Tacoma City," containing ordinary and registered articles addressed for delivery in that city. " Tacoma Dis.," containing all registered articles destined for places in or beyond the United States, except the City of Tacoma, and all ordinary articles addressed for delivery at places within the United States not herein assigned to mails made up for other United States exchange postoffices : that is to say, .except for the Cities of San Francisco and Chicago and the States of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ehode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. It is understood that in each of the mails herein provided for the " letters and post-cards " will be put up separately from the "other articles," and that the "paid" articles will be separated from the " unpaid and short paid," and that each separation will be labelled to indicate the nature of its contents. In the case of the closed mails conveyed to Vancouver, and forwarded thence to New York for despatch to destinations beyond the United States, you will no doubt cause the net weights of the articles therein contained to be promptly advised to the Postmaster of New York, as in the case of similar mails conveyed by steamers sailing for San Francisco. Your attention is called to this matter, because in the case of the closed mails recently received at New York vid Vancouver no statement of their net weight accompanied the mails to New York. For the present, articles from the United States for the colonies will continue to be forwarded in open mail to Vancouver, to be included in mails there made up for despatch per steamers sailing from that port.