FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE

E.—No. 4,

14

thereof, in the care of the commander of any vessel, such commander shall take charge of them and be responsible for their due receipt and delivery. The commander shall also make the usual Post Office declaration, and furnish such journal, returns, and other information, and perform such other services as the Postmaster-General or his officers may from time to time require. 19. Except such letters as are not required by law to pass through the Post Office, the contractors not to receive, or permit to be received, for conveyance on board any of the vessels employed under the contract, any letters others than those contained in Her Majesty's mails. No mails must be conveyed on behalf of any Colony or Eoreign Country without permission of Her Majesty's Postmaster-General; and the whole postage of every mail shall, under all circumstances, be at his disposal. 20. Every vessel which may have started, or which should have started before the termination of the contract must complete its voyage in like manner as if the contract remained in force. 21. The contractors, when so required, to be bound to convey from any one port of departure or call, to any other such port, any number of Government passengers, not exceeding four of the first class, two of the second, and ten of the third class, together, if so required, with their wives and children; such passengers with their families to be treated in no respect, whether as regards food, cabin or other accommodation, or aught else, in an inferior way to ordinary passengers of the same class, or than is required by the regulations of Her Majesty's Transport Service. The messing of the first and second class Government passengers to include each day an imperial pint of good sound bottled or draught ale or beer, and that of the first class, in addition, an imperial pint of good foreign wine, either port or white. The several classes of passengers to mess in separate places. Medical attendance, medicine and medical comforts to be provided, as also mess utensils and fittings, cooking utensils, articles for table use and mess places, fuel, lights, requisite articles of bedding, and all other necessaries. Third class passengers to have hammocks or bunks (subject to the approval of the Naval authorities) placed between decks. 22. The passage-money for Government passengers or their families to be the same as that charged by the contractors for ordinary passengers of a similar kind, and to include all the requisites specified in the twenty-first condition, and the freight of baggage according to Government scale, Whenever any alterations of rates for ordinary passengers may be made, the Postmaster-General and the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to be immediately apprised of such alterations. 23. Eeturns of the embarkation and disembarkation of all Government passengers to be furnished immediately after the departure and arrival of each vessel. 24. Payments for passage-money of Government passengers to be applied for by invoices according to a form to be obtained from the office of the Director of Transport Services, and to be made upon the production, to tho Director, of the orders for the passages, together with a certificate, under the hand of the commanding officer, specifying the number of the third class passengers (men, women, and children) conveyed, with the ages and sexes of the latter, and stating the periods during which these have been regularly supplied, while on board, with provisions ; and also of a certificate under the hand of each first and second class passenger, of his or her having been landed at the place of destination, and of having been properly accommodated and messed during the voyage, and specifying the dates from and to which they were so messed, computed from the first to the last dinner meal. 25. The passage-money for the wives and families of commissioned and civil officers, when not ordered to be conveyed at the public expense, to be paid to the contractors by the officers themselves. 26. The contractors to receive on board each of the vessels employed in the performance of the contract, and to convey, on behalf of the Admiralty, without charge, any small packages which may be ordered for conveyance, containing astronomical instruments, charts, wearing apparel, medicines, or other articles ; and also (on receiving from the Postmaster-General, or his officers or agents, or from the British Naval Officer in command of the Station, two days' previous notice,) to receive on board any naval or other stores, not exceeding ten tons weight, or fifteen tons of forty cubic feet each in measurement, at any one time, in any one vessel; and to convey and deliver such stores at the lowest rate of freight charged by the contractors for private goods, immediate notice being given to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty of any alteration in such rate of freight. The contractors to be in all cases responsible for the custody and safe delivery of the packages and stores. 27. Except where otherwise specified, none of the duties enumerated in the foregoing conditions to give the contractors any claim to remuneration beyond the general subsidy. 28. Every sum of money forfeited by the contractors to be considered as stipulated or ascertained or liquidated damages and to be payable whether any damage shall or shall not have been sustained by reason of the breach for which the penalty may be levied. The amount to be deducted by the Post-master-General out of any moneys then payable or which may thereafter become payable to the contractors ; or, at his discretion, the payment thereof may be enforced, with full costs of suit. 29. The contract to continue in force until the expiration of a twenty-four calendar months notice, to be given in writing at any time by either party. 30. The contract will not be binding until it has lain upon the table of the House of Commons for one month, without disapproval, unless, previous to the lapse of that period, it has been approved of by a Resolution of the House. 31. Subject to deductions for penalties or otherwise, payments to be made quarterly at the General Post Office, out of moneys to be provided by Parliament. 32. All notices which the Postmaster-General or any of his officers or agents are authorized to give, either to be delivered to the commander of any vessel of the contractors or to any officer or agent of the contractors in charge of any of such vessels, or to be left at the office or last known place of business of the contractors. 33. In case of great public emergency, the Government to have power, at any time during the continuance of the contract, to purchase at a valuation any of the vessels employed under the contract, or to charter the same exclusively for Her Majesty's service ; the amount of the valuation or rate^ of hire to be agreed on by the Admiralty and the contractors, or failing such agreement, by arbitration, in the usual manner.