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[Translation.] With reference to your letter of 9th April last, I have the honour to inform you that we are unable to accept your proposals, and that we maintain the reply which was given you in our letter of sth February last.

No. 146. The Sbcrbtaey, General Post Office, London, to the Hon. the Postmastee-GenebaT;, Wellington. Sic, — General Post Office, London, 13th June, 1901. Adverting to the letter from this office of the 12th October last, in which you were informed of the interest naturally taken by the Postmaster-General in looking forward to the outcome of your proposals to negotiate for a reduced letter postage between New Zealand and foreign countries, I am directed to ask whether you are now in a position to favour the Marquess of Londonderry with full particulars of the result of your negotiations. The Postmaster-General supposes that this inquiry can hardly be premature, seeing that some details already appear to have been communicated by yourself and your officers either directly or indirectly to members of Parliament and to the Press in this country. Through Mr. Henniker Heaton, M.P., the Postmaster-General learned some time ago that you had concluded a unilateral arrangement with the Egyptian Post Office, and this intelligence was authenticated by application to that office. From a newspaper report, of which a copy is enclosed, it is now gathered that you have secured a similar concession from several other foreign Post Offices, and that interesting correspondence has passed between yourself and the German Post Office on the subject. The Postmaster-General is sure that you will appreciate his anxiety to have early and complete information on this important matter from yourself, instead of depending, as he has hitherto had to depend, on such second-hand reports respecting it as may reach him at haphazard from unauthoritative quarters. I am, &c, The Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington. H. Buxton Foeman.

Enclosure in No. 146. [Extract from Daily Express dated the 11th June, 1901.] The foreign Administrations of Chili, Costa Eica, Nicaragua, Egypt, Italy, Mexico, Paraguay, Siam, and Switzerland have notified that they will accept New Zealand penny letters, although not at present prepared to reciprocate. Germany has sent a lengthy letter giving reasons why the New Zealand Postmaster-General's proposals cannot be accepted at present, and many of tbe countries desire that the question beheld" over until it can be discussed at the next Universal Postal Union Congress, which will be held at Rome in 1902.

No. 147. The Hon. the Impebial Ministee of Commerce, Vienna, to the Hon. the Postmastee-Geneeal Wellington. Monsieub le Directeur-Genebal, — Vienna, le 13 Juin, 1901. Me referant a votre lettre dv 9 Avril dr., je regrette d'etre dans la necessite de vous repeter qu'il m'est impossible, pour les motifs que je me suis permis de vous expliquer dans ma lettre dv 25 Janvier, dr., d'ordonner que les lettres originaires de votre pays, a destination de l'Autriche et affranchies a raison dun penny par 15 grammes, soient remises aux destinataires sans surtaxe. Le procede creerait, a mon avis, une exception facheuse au principe de l'uniformite dcs taxes de l'Union postale universelle. Vuillez agreer, &c, Pour le Ministre dv Commerce, Monsieur le Directeur-General dcs Postes a Wellington. .

[Translation.] Eeferring to your letter of the 9th April last, I regret to find myself under the necessity to repeat to you that it is impossible for me, because of the reasons which I took the liberty of explaining to you in my letter of the 25th January last, to arrange that letters originating in your country addressed to Austria and prepaid at Id. per half-ounce be delivered to addressees without surcharge. Such a procedure would create, in my opinion, a regrettable exception to the principle of uniformity of the surcharges of the Universal Postal Union.

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