23

F.—6

No. 78

The Secretary. General Post Office, Wellington, to the Deputy Postmaster-General, Ottawa. Sir, General Post Office, Wellington, Bth March, 1910. 1 have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd January last, enclosing an amended " X " accouni showing 16,168-24 fr. to be due to your office for the transit of New Zealand mails for the United Kingdom from Vancouver to Montreal for the year 1908 : also an account showing 13,852-66 fr. to be due for the same transit for the period from the Ist to the 28th May. 1909. As the United States Post Office has claimed 39 centimes for letters and post-cards and 6 centimes for other articles for the transit of New Zealand mails for the United Kingdom through the United States, the rates in the accounts have been amended so that the total claim for the territorial transit through North America should not exceed :i francs lor letters and post-cards and -IO centimes for other articles, in accordance with the last section of paragraph 5 of article I of the Universal Postal Union Convention of Rome. The accounts have been amended accordingly, and now show the amount due to your office to be 13,982-85 fr. and 11.989-18 fr. respectively. One copy of each of the accounts accepted as amended is returned herewith. The later statistics will apply to the whole of the year 1909. as the mail service via San Francisco commenced at the beginning of that year. I have, &c, D. Robertson, Secretary. The Deputy Postmaster-General. Ottawa. [P.O. 09/311.J

No. 79. The President, Chamber of Commerce, Auckland, to the Right Hon. the Prime Minister. (Telegram.) Auckland, 26th April, 1910. Re mail-service : In view no possibility American subsidy restoring old Frisco-Auckland-Sydney service, my Chamber is strongly of opinion that immediate steps must be taken to establish a rapid up-to-date service of, say, twenty-eight to thirty days from Europe. We have been in telegraphic communication with Sir James Mills, who, in event of arrangement to drop Brisbane and make Sydney terminal port being possible, favours three-weekly Sydney - New Zealand-Vancouver service (Auckland port of call). 1 therefore recommend as follows : That a three-weekly service of seventeen to eighteen days from Vancouver to Auckland, via Hawaii and Fiji, be instituted with Union Company, making Sydney terminal port. Assuming that one hundred thousand pounds be required as yearly subsidy, such amount to be allocated as follows : Canada thirty-seven thousand pounds. Australia twenty-six thousand six hundred pounds. Fiji twenty-three hundred pounds—present respective payments ; and New .Zealand, thirty-four thousand one hundred pounds, which would be about same amount as the Suez slow route of forty days is alone costing the Dominion. The latter payment would be reduced by the 3um of forty-six hundred pounds now expended on the present unsatisfactory Vancouver connection. As present contract expires in July, trust you will be able to arrange something on foregoing lines. We find that you now pay approximately for main services forty-seven thousand pounds per annum, which payments would be largely obviated by proposed arrangement that would carry bulk of our mails. If you have negotiations in hand, kindly advise proposals and full data. You will admit that present mail conditions are out of date and costly, and that some prompt action is necessary. Awaiting reply. [Van. Misc. 10/80-f

No. 80. The President, Chamber of Commerce, Auckland, to the Right Hon. the Prime Minister. (Telegram.) Auckland, 28th April, 1910. I\ my wire 26th instant 1 find omitted the words "or oilier " alter the word " Union." Please read with that addition. Kindly reply soon as possible. [Van. .Misc. 10/98.]

No. 81. The Right Hon. the Primk Ministeb to the President, Chamber of Commerce, Auckland. (Telegram.) AVellington, 28th April, 1910. lam obliged to you for conveying your suggestions to me regarding the Vancouver service. The matter is one to which I have been giving personal attention ever since the discontinuance of the San Francisco service, and if it could be settled in the way you suggest no one would be more pleased than myself. Unfortunately, however, at present your proposal is impracticable in so far as regards securing of the service upon the lines you name, for the reason that apart from Canada and New Zealand, the Australian Commonwealth must also agree. I have been in communication with both the Canadian and the Commonwealth Governments with a view to securing a call at Auckland of the Vancouver steamers ; but, although a substantial subsidy from New Zealand would be paid, I regret that up to now no satisfactory arrangement has been come to. I understand also from the latest information to hand that the Commonwealth Government intend to extend the present contract with Brisbane as a first and