25

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4. The wages to be paid to seamen by the Company in respect of the vessels employed under this contract shall not be less than the current rate of wages payable for the time being in New South Wales for steamship seamen engaged or employed for voyages beyond the Australian Colonies. 5. The mails shall be safely conveyed from San Francisco to Auckland within four hundred and fifty-six hours, and to Sydney in five hundred and seventy-six hours, and from Sydney and from Auckland to San Francisco respectively within a like period, such times to be calculated as provided in the original contract. 6. The liability of the Postmaster-General under this contract shall only extend to outward mails from New Zealand, and in respect of such mails the Postmaster-General will pay the Company at the following rates : Letters at ten shillings and fivepence per pound ; books, packets, and printed matter other than newspapers at one shilling per pound; and newspapers at sixpence per pound: such rates being calculated on the net weight of the respective mail-matter hereinbefore mentioned actually carried. But all letters, books, packets, printed matter other than newspapers, and newspapers sent from New Zealand to Australia shall not be deemed part of an outward mail: Provided that, if the sums to be paid to the Company under this contract shall not amount to the sum of seven thousand five hundred pounds per annum, the Postmaster-General shall pay to the Company such a sum as will make up the difference between the amounts actually so paid and the said sum of seven thousand five hundred pounds. 7. During the continuance of this contract, and so long as the same shall be faithfully carried out by the contractors, no charge for harbour-dues, dock-dues, or other rates shall be made or levied under "The Harbours Act, 1878," or any amendment thereof, or under any special Act in that behalf at the Port of Auckland for any of the steam-vessels employed in carrying out this contract, and all such vessels shall be exempt therefrom accordingly. 8. All the provisions of the original oontract shall (except where altered, extended, or modified by the terms of these presents) extend and apply to this contract, and be deemed to be incorporated herewith, and shall take effect from time to time as occasion arises in respect of the services to be performed hereunder, and otherwise in relation thereto or in connection therewith, as if the provisions of the original contract (except as aforesaid) had been fully set forth herein and were still in full force. In witness whereof the Postmaster-General hath hereunto set his hand and seal, and the Company hath hereunto caused its common seal to be affixed, the day and year first above, written. Signed, sealed, and delivered by the Bight Honourable Bichard\ John Seddon as Postmaster-General of New Zealand, in the FeSenCeof " T.H.HAMEE, L B. J. SEDDON. ( L.S.) Private Secretary to Premier, Wellington, New Zealand. The common seal of the Union Steam Ship Company of New' Zealand (Limited) was hereunto affixed in the presence of— Union Steam Ship (1.5.) >- Company of New Geo. McLean, I Directors of the Zealand (Limited). James Mills, J said Company. I

[Indoesement.]- —Agbeement for Renewal for twelve months ending 31st March, 1900. Memoeandum of Agbeement, made this twentieth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine, between the Bight Honourable Bichaed John Seddon as such PostmasterGeneral, and acting as within described, of the one part, and the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand (Limited), also within described, of the other part, witnesseth that, in order to give effect to certain resolutions passed by the House of Eepresentatives on or about the twenty-eighth day of October last jpast, so far as the same relate to the San Francisco mailservice provided for in the within-written contract, it is hereby mutually agreed between the parties hereto that the within-written contract, dated the eleventh day of April, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine, shall be and the same is hereby deemed to have continued in force, and is hereby continued and extended, for the period of twelve calendar months, such continuation and extension to take effect as on and after the first day of April, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine : And it is hereby also mutually declared and agreed that all the terms and provisions of the within-written contract shall be and be deemed to be operative in respect of these presents and the services hereby intended to be provided for, with such modifications as are necessary to render the same effective. In witness whereof the Postmaster-General hath hereunto set his hand and seal, and the Company hath hereunto caused its common seal to be affixed, the day and year first above written. Signed, sealed, and delivered by the Bight Honourable Bichard\ John Seddon as Postmaster-General of New Zealand, in the presence of— ]■ B. J. Seddon. (1.5.) W Geay, Secretary, Post and Telegraph Department. J The common seal of the Union Steam Ship Company of New\ Zealand (Limited) was hereunto affixed in the presence of— Union Steam Ship (1.5.) L Company of New A. W. Mobbis,) Directors of the Zealand (Limited.) J. B. Jones, j Company. j

4—F. 6.