F.—6

FEDERAL SERVICE-

AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND CONNECTION.

No. 149. The Seceetaby, General Post Office, Wellington, to the Deputy Postmasteb-Genebal, Sydney. (Telegram.) Wellington, Bth August, 1901. What are present transit rates per pound on Federal mails across Italy, and across France ?

No. 150. The Deputy Postmastee-Geneeal, Sydney, to the Seceetaby, General Post Office, Wellington. (Telegram.) Sydney, 9th August, 1901. Peesent transit rates across Italy and France, are for each country one franc seventy centimes per kilogramme of letters, and 21-25 centimes per kilogramme other articles.

No. 151. The Genebal Managek, Union Steam Ship Company, Dunedin, to the Secbetaey, General Post Office, Wellington. Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand (Limited,) Sib,— Dunedin, 20th August, 1901. The mail w<2 San Francisco was to have been despatched from Auckland, according to the time-table, on 4th May last. The " Sonoma," the mail-steamer, however, was delayed at Sydney until the 9fch May, and did not leave Auckland until the 13th. At your request, we detained our steamer " Mokoia " at Bluff from the afternoon of 30th April until next morning, to allow of her taking the mail which otherwise should have gone vid San Francisco. I understand that this detention was of great service to your Department, as well as to the general public, and we were pleased to be able to fall in with your request that the "Mokoia" should be detained for the purpose specified. I enclose a voucher for a nominal charge of £50 for the " Mokoia's " detention and shall be much obliged if you will pass same at your early convenience. I have, &c, T. W. Whitson, for General Manager. The Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington.

No. 152. The Seceetaby, General Post Office, Wellington, to the Managing Dibectob, Union Steam Ship Company, Dunedin. Sib,— General Post Office, Wellington, 24th September, 1901. Eeferring to your letter of the 20th ultimo on the above-named subject, I have the honour to inform you that a voucher for £50 in favour of your company has been prepared and passed for payment. I have, &c, The Managing Director, W. Geay, Secretary, Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand (Limited), Dunedin,

No. 153. The Seceetaby, Chamber of Commerce, Wellington, to the Hon. the Postmasteb-Genebal, Wellington. Sic, — Wellington Chamber of Commerce, Wellington, 3rd October, 1901. The Council of this Chamber desires respectfully to bring under your notice the fact that such portions of New Zealand mails for the United Kingdom as are sent by way of Sydney, as also correspondence connected with the increasing trade of the colony with the Bast, are unduly delayed by the fact that the steamers carrying such mails leave here on Saturdays and reach Sydney on Wednesdays, thus missing the outward mail despatched thence each Tuesday, and involving a detention of six days for the following mail. It is also desired to call your attention to the fact that the inward Federal mail, which is due in Melbourne on Tuesdays, and frequently arrives on the Monday, in detained in Melbourne for the Union steamer leaving on Wednesday, and so reaches the Bluff on the Tuesday. These detentions could be largely avoided and a great improvement effected in our mail system if the intercolonial steamboat service were in each case advanced by a day. The inward mail would then reach the Bluff on the Monday, and the outward mail could be despatched from Wellington on the Friday, so catching the outward mail leaving Sydney on the Tuesday. Under such circumstances the principal towns in the South Island and Wellington would possess a regular weekly service, with three days for reply to their correspondence. It appears to my Council that a still further improvement might be effected if the express train from Dunedin, which now leaves at 11 a.m., were despatched at 8 o'clock. This would enable the steamer to leave Lyttelton by 6 o'clock with English and colonial mails, which would catch the trains leaving Wellington, and so enable the important towns of Napier, Wanganui, and

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