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VANCOUVER SEEVICE. AUCKLAND - SUVA - HONOLULU -VANCOUVER CONTRACT.

No. 105. The Right Hon. the Prime Minister, Ottawa, to the Right Hon. the Prime Minister, Wellington. Prime Minister's Office, Canada, Dear Sir Joseph Ward, — Ottawa, 6th June, 1910. I write to confirm my telegram of this date, which is in the following words: " Call for tenders already issued a few days ago, including alternative proposition of call at New Zealand. Copies are being sent by to-day's mail. Time for presentation of tenders expires November Ist. Subject referred to in your telegram might be held in abeyance until tenders have been received." I also enclose copies of the tenders therein referred to. Believe me, &c, Wilfrid Laurier. The Right Hon. Sir J. G. Ward, P.C., K.C.M.G., Prime Minister of the Dominion of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand. [Vane. Misc. 10/136.] _____ Enclosure in No. 105. Tenders for Mail-service between Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Tenders for an ocean-mail steamship service between Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, or Canada and Australia, are invited, and will be received at the Office of the Minister of Trade and Commerce of Canada, Ottawa, Canada, until noon of the Ist day of November, 1910. Tenders are to be sent in sealed envelopes, addressed to the Minister of Trade and Commerce, and to be marked " Tenders for Mail-service between Canada, Australia, and New Zealand " ; and where submitted through the post should be registered. The service is to consist of a sailing every four weeks from Vancouver, in the Province of British Columbia, and tenders will be received for proposals for the service on the following alternative routes:- — Route (a). —Sailing from Vancouver, calling at Victoria, Honolulu, Suva, and Brisbane to Sydney, and return to Vancouver, calling at the aforesaid ports. Route (b). —Sailing from Vancouver, calling at Victoria, Honolulu, Suva, Auckland, and Sydney to Melbourne, and return to Vancouver, calling at the aforesaid ports. Route ('•). —Sailing from Vancouver, calling at Victoria, Honolulu, Suva, Auckland, and Sydney to Brisbane, and return to Vancouver, calling at the aforesaid ports. Route (d). —Sailing from and returning to Vancouver, and calling each way at such of the ports hereinbefore stated as may be specified by those submitting proposals. 1. The service to be tendered for so that mails shall leave Vancouver four weeks after the appointed time for the departure of th.s last steamers under the existing extended contract with the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, which expires on the 31st July, 1911. 2. Alternative tenders to be sent in for terms of three or five years as from the Ist August, 1911. 3. Tenders must state the registered tonnage and passenger-accommodation of the steamships to be employed, and the average speed of such steamers, also the annual subsidy required if the contract is for three or five j-ears. Preference will be given, other conditions being equal, to tenderers providing the most satisfactory conditions in_ these respects, and also as to refrigerator and insulated space. The vessels to be employed are to class Al, and to run under the British flag. 4. The contractor is to land and embark mails at all ports of call at his own cost and expense. 5. The tenders shall be subject to general conditions, which may be obtained on application, and to all other conditions incidental to such contracts, unless they are inconsistent with the special conditions of this contract. A copy of all the conditions of the contract may be obtained upon application to the office of the Minister of Trade and Commerce at Ottawa, Canada; the Postmaster-General, Melbourne, .Australia; or at the respective offices of the Dominion of Canada and the Commonwealth of Australia in London. 6. The Minister does not bind himself to accept the lowest or any tender, nor to accept the tender providing for the highest speed. F. C. T. O'Haha, Deputy Minister of Tradp and Commerce. Department of Trade and Commerce. Ottawa, 9th May, 1910.