34

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(2.) The company shall receive and allow to remain on board each of the mail-ships on her voyage between Penang and Singapore, and between Singapore and Hong Kong, an officer of the Post Office to take charge of and sort and make up the mails. (3.) A suitable first-class cabin with appropriate bed, bedding, and furniture shall, at the cost of the company, be provided and appropriated by them for the exclusive use and accommodation of every such officer as in this clause mentioned, and every such officer shall be victualled by the company as a chief cabin passenger without any charge either for his passage or victualling. 17. The company shall also receive and allow to remain on board each of the mail-ships on her voyage between Port Said and Bombay, and also while stopping at Aden, and whether such mailship shall be with or without mails on board, in addition to any officer in charge of the mails, such number (not exceeding thirty) of officers of the Post Office as shall be reasonably required for the purpose of sorting and making up the mails, and shall, without any charge, provide suitable accommodation and victualling for such additional officers either as chief-cabin passengers or as fore-cabin passengers at the option of the Postmaster-General. 18. At each port or place where the mails are to be delivered and embarked, the officer having charge of mails shall, whenever and as often as by him shall be deemed necessary for the public service, be conveyed on shore, and also from the shore to the mail-ship, either with or (if such officer shall consider it necessary for the purposes of this agreement) without the mails, in a suitable and seaworthy boat of not less than four oars, to be furnished with effectual covering for the mails, and properly provided, maimed, and equipped by the company. 19. (1.) The company shall, at their own cost, land, deliver, and embark the mails at all ports or places at which the mails are to be landed, delivered, and embarked, and shall accordingly at their own costs provide suitable means and proper assistance for, and shall be responsible for the due landing, delivery, and embarking of the mails. (2.) The company and all commanding and other officers of the mail-ships, and all agents, seamen, and servants of the company shall at all times punctually attend to the orders and directions of the Postmaster-General, his officers, or agents as to the mode, time, and place of landing, delivering, and embarking the mails, and shall at all times protect the mails to the utmost of their power. . (3.) The company shall provide at Aden and at Bombay such small steamships as may be required for landing, embarking, and transhipping the mails with due despatch at each of the said places, and such steamships respectively shall be so constructed as to be able at all states of the tide to land and embark the mails at Aden and at Bombay, and the company shall at all times keep such steamships in complete repair, and ready for landing' and embarking the mails accordingly at such places respectively. , 20. (I.) The master or commander of each of the mail-ships shall, whenever required by the Postmaster-Geueral, his officers, or agents so to do, without any remuneration other than the subsidy payable to the company under this agreement, take charge of the mails conveyed or intended to be conveyed by such mail-ship, and shall adopt all necessary measures and precautions for the safety of the mails to the satisfaction of the Postmaster-General, his officers, and agents. . , . (2.) Each of such masters or commanders shall make the usual declaration or declarations required, or which may hereafter be required by the Postmaster-General in such and similar cases, and furnish such journals, returns, and information to and perform such services as the Post-master-General, his officers, or agents may require. (3.) Every such master or commander, or officer duly authorised by him, having charge ot mails shall himself immediately on the arrival of the mail-ship at any port or place deliver all mails for such port or place into the hands of the Postmaster of such port or place, or of such other person at such port or place as the Postmaster-General shall authorise to receive the same, and shall in like manner receive all the return or other mails to be forwarded in due course. 21. (1.) The company shall during the continuance of this agreement (in addition to the services hereinbefore contracted to be performed by them, and without any payment other than the subsidy hereinafter specified) convey by any steamship of the company performing any service undertaken by the company for their own purposes, all mails which the Postmaster-General, or any of his officers'or agents, shall from time to time require to be conveyed. (2.) The mails shall be conveyed by any such steamship, as in this clause mentioned, to and be delivered at any port or place to which such steamship shall sail and for which such mails are intended. (3.) Provided that (except as regards the payment for the services to be rendered by the company under this clause) nothing contained in this agreement shall impose on the company with respect to the embarking, delivering, and conveyance of any mails which are to be conveyed by the company under this clause any obligations in excess of those now imposed by the law of England on the master of a vessel with respect to the embarking, delivering, and conveyance of letters received by him on board his vessel. 22. The company shall undertake and make all necessary and proper arrangements in connection with any statutory regulations of the Local Government Board relative to puhlic health, or in connection with quarantine, which may be required in respect of the mail-ships, or any other steamships of the company carrying mails under this agreement, and no deduction shall be made from the subsidy payable uncler this agreement, nor shall the company be otherwise liable for or by reason of any delay in the landing, embarkation, delivery, or conveyance of any mails arising from the observance of any such regulations or the imposition of quarantine. 23. (1.) Nothing in this agreement shall exempt the company, or any mail-ship or other steamship of the company from the operation of any Act of Parliament, Order in Council, by-law, or other provision of the law in relation to explosives.