F.—6a

6

No. 13. The Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington, to the Deputy Postmaster-General, Sydney. Sir,— General Post Office, Wellington, 30th June, 1899. I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th instant, and to thank you for the copy enclosed therein of the contract entered into by your department with Messrs. Burns, Philp, and Co. (Limited) for the conveyance of mails between Sydney and Vancouver. > I have, &c, The Deputy Postmaster-General, Sydney. W. Gray, Secretary.

No. 14. The Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington, to the Under-Secretary, Post and Telegraph Department, Brisbane. Sir,— General Post Office, Wellington, 30th June, 1899. I have the honour to request that you will be so good as to favour me with a copy of the contract entered into between your department and the contractors for the Sydney-Vancouver mail-service, under which the mails of your colony are conveyed to and from Vancouver. I have, &c, W. Gray, Secretary. The Under-Secretary, Post and Telegraph Department, Brisbane.

No. 15. The Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington, to the Secretary, Post Office, London. Sir,— General Post Office, Wellington, 17th July, 1899. I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 24th May last, asking to be furnished with a table in continuation of that supplied in November last, showing the number of days occupied in the transmission to Melbourne, Bluff, Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland of mails despatched from your office conveyed from Brindisi by steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. In reply, I have to inform you that arrangements are being made to furnish your office with the desired information monthly, including the arrivals of the mails by the steamers of the Orient line. The first table will show the arrivals of mails despatched by you from the 30th September last. The dates of arrival at Melbourne will not be shown, as the information would have to be obtained from the Post Office there, and this would unduly delay our return. Moreover, it is understood that these dates are supplied to your office direct from Melbourne. If you see no objection, I propose to dispense with the advice of outward and inward mails vid San Francisco hitherto sent to your office and incorporate the arrivals vid San Francisco in the monthly table referred to herein. I have &c, The Secretary, General Post Office, London. W. Gray, for the Postmaster-General.

INTEEPEOVINCIAL SEEVICE. No. 16. Warrant. To the Right Hon. Richard John Seddon, Postmaster-General. In pursuance of the provisions of section eight of " The Post Office Act, 1881," I, Uchter John Mark, Earl of Ranfurly, Governor of the Colony of New Zealand, do hereby direct you, Richard John Seddon, Postmaster-General- of the said colony, to enter into a contract on behalf of the Government of the said colony with the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand (Limited) for the carriage of mails each way between Lyttelton and Auckland, in performance of the interprovincial service connecting with the mail-service between Auckland and San Francisco, and also for the carriage of mails each way between Lyttelton and Wellington and Auckland and Wellington, in performance of the interprovincial service connecting with the mail-service between Wellington and Vancouver, for the period from the first day of April, one thousand eight hundred and ninetyeight to the thirty-first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine, both days inclusive: the contract to be subject in all respects to such terms and conditions as to you shall seem fit. Ranfurly. Given under my hand, at Auckland, in the said colony, this second day of December, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight.

No. 17. The Managing Director, Union Steam Ship Company, Dunedin, to the Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington. Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand (Limited), Sir,— Dunedin, 18th February, 1899. I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your favour of 14th instant [see No. 48, F.-6, 1899], advising that the New South Wales Government has agreed to the sailing date of the San