E.—No. 2.

I must again call your attention to the circumstance, that the draft contract to be entered into by this Goverincnt with the Panama New Zealand and Australian Royal Mail Company, which was left with you by Mr. Crosbie Ward, and which has been repeatedly requested to be transmitted here, has not yet been received. And I would again urge on you the importance of its immediate transmission. I have, &c, The Colonial Secretary, New South Wales. E. W. Staffoed.

No. 5. Copy of a Letter from the Colonial Secretary, New South Wales, to the Hon. E. W. Stafford. Colonial Secretary's Office, Sydney, Sir,— New South Wales, Ist October, 1867. With reference to your letter of tho 17th ultimo,* No. 301, representing the inconvenience resulting from the draft contract between the Government of New Zealand, and the Panama New Zealand and Australian Royal Mail Company, for the Panama postal service, not having been forwarded to you, as promised in my communication of the Ist of last August, I have the honor to inform you that the document in question has been duly sent. I have, &c. The Hon. tho Colonial Secretary, New Zealand. Henry Halloean.

No. 6. Copy of a Letter from the Hon. E. W. Staffoed to the Colonial Secretary, New South Wales. Colonial Secretary's Office, Sir,— Wellington, 4th February, 1868. I regret to have again to call your attention to the fact that the draft contract with tho Panama New Zealand and Australian Royal Mail Company, which was left with you by Mr. Crosbie Ward, and which has been requested, in my letters noted in the margin., to be transmitted to this Department, has not been yet received. Captain Benson, the General Manager of the abovenamed Company, who has been recently in Sydney, states that he understood from you, that you had never seen the draft contract, but he must evidently have misapprehended your meaning, as in your letter No. 67-4901, of the Ist of August last, you refer to it as having been left with you, and promise that it shall be transmitted to me in a few days. _ . As it is probable that the draft contract in question has been mislaid, I have the honor to enclose another copy of it. I have, &c, The Colonial Secretary, New South Wales. E. W. Stafford.

No. 88, May 16, 1867. _ No. 260, July 25, 1867^ No. 301, Sept. 17, 1867. No. 332, Oct. 9, 1867. No. 373, Nov. 18, 1867.

No. 7. Copy of a Letter from the Colonial Secretary, New South Wales, to tho Hon. E. W. Stafford. Colonial Secretary's Office, Sir,— Sydney, 31st March, 1868. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 4th instant, wherein you invite my attention to your several letters noted in the margin of your letter, requesting the transmission of a draft contract to be entered into by your Government, with the Panama New Zealand and Australian Royal Mail Company, and which you state to have been left with me by the late Mr. Crosbie Ward. 2, In reply, I beg to express my regret that an answer which I had directed to your letter of the 18th November last (No. 67-337), was by some oversight in this office neglected to bo forwarded. In that reply it was to have been stated that I had no knowledge whatever of tho draft contract alluded to ; and further, that though several printed copies of the document in question had been received, it could hardly have been intended that any of these was desired. 3. In your letter of the 4th you make reference to the language of my letter of the Ist of August last year, as showing that tho Contract had been received by this Government. On examining the letter book, I find that the word " Contract" was used in that communication; but my minute, directing that communication to be written, was in the following words: —" Letter acknowledging receipt, and informing that Draft Agreement shall be transmitted in a few days" —meaning the articles of agreement between the two Colonies. The clerk who wrote the reply, following the terms of a letter of yours, instead of the terms of my minute, employed the word Contract, which has led to the misunderstanding as to the document, the transmission of which was promised. I have, &c, The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, New Zealand. Henry Paekes. * No. 25 of Panama Papers, 1867, E.—No. 3a.

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