D.—No. I*.

No 21. General Post Office, Auckland, 28th September, 1864. Mr Lord, — I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 20th July last, expressing the surprise of your Directors at what they are pleased to term the injustice of the course which I have adopted in reference to tho subsidy of (£1600,) one thousand six hundred pounds per annum, for the Interprovincial services performed by the Sydney and Cook's Straits steamer, and informing me that t/iei/ conceive it necessary that direct communication should be maintained between Sydney and the Southern Provinces of New Zealand. A reference to my letter to the Local Manager of your Company, dated sth April, 1804, will show that there was every desire on my part, to cause as little inconvenience as possible to the Company by the termination of that service, which, in my opinion; had become unnecessary : and it was only on receipt of Capt. Alne Hall's letter of 20th April that I felt compelled to terminate that service by formal notice. Mr. Crosbie Ward's letter of the 17th December, being part of the Panama scheme arrangement, I cannot recognise as having anything to do with this matter, nor can Resolutions of the House of Representatives confer any rights on parties who undertake contracts, without reference to such Resolutions as tho basis of their contracts. The satisfactory operation of the Interprovincial Services arranged by me in April last, has fully justified my opinion of the propriety of terminating the Nelson and Otago Service, and leaves no prospect of its resumption. I have Ac. Thomas B. Gillies, Postmaster General, The Right Hon. Lord Claud Hamilton, Chairman I, C. R. M. Co. London. No. 22. Notice to Messrs. McMeckhan A Blackwood, terminating Contract. Dunedin, TBth June, 1864. Gentlemen,— In terms of the Contract for the conveyance of mails per " Aldiuga" and " Alhambra," I hereby give you the stipulated six months' notice, that tho existing Contract will cease and determine on the 11th day of January, 1865. I have, Ac, Thomas B. Gillies, Messrs. McMeckhan A Blackwood, Postmaster-General, New Zealand. Melbourne. No. 23. Contract with Messrs. McMeckhan A Blackwood for Steam Mail Service between Otago and Auckland. Articles of Agreement made this ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, between James M'Meckan and John Hutchison Blackwood, of Melboure, in tho colony of A rictoria, merchants and ship-owners, and who are hereinafter styled " the contractors" of the one part, and Her Majesty's Postmaster-General of the Colony of New Zealand, on behalf of the said Colony, in pursuance of the provisions of "The New Zealand Post-office Act, 1858," of the other part, witness, that for the considerations hereinafter mentioned, the said contractors, for themselves, their heirs, executors, administrators, covenant, and each of them, for himself, his heirs, executors, and administrators, covenants with the said Postmaster-General and his successors in office, as follows: — 1. The steamships " Aldinga" and " Alhambra" shall, at the commencement of the contract service hereby provided for, and during the continuance of the same, be tight, stanch and strong, properly manned and equipped for sea, and shall bo employed, as hereinafter mentioned, in the mail service between Melbourne aforesaid and Port Chalmers in New Zealand. 2. One of the said steamships shall, within twenty-four hours after the arrival of the European mail at the port of Melbourne aforesaid, in each month, leave that port for Port Chalmers aforesaid, and shall, unless prevented by tempestuous weather, call at the Bluff Harbour to land and receive mails, and shall deliver the mails at Port Chalmers within one hundred and fifty-six hours from the hour of departure from Melbourne. Provided that neither of the said steamships shall be required to wait at Melbourne for the European mail more than twenty-six hours after its due date for arrival there, and

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NEW ZEALAND MAIL SERVICE.