THE MAIL CONTRACT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1404, 13 December 1884, Page 2

THE MAIL CONTRACT.

The following are the principal conditions in the mail contract beyond what have already been pubished. The mtils shall be conveyed once in every four weeks in each year bet ween Plymouth and either of the ports of Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, Port Chalmers or Bluff, and in the same manner between one of the New Zealand porta and Plymouth, and the vessels employed shall leave New Zealand ports and Plymouth on days and times to be appointed by the PostmasterGeneral, and the days or times to be appointed may be varied or altered as the Postmaster-General shall think fit, provided that the dates of final despatch from New Zealand port and Plymouth respectively shall alternate with the days of despatch of mails by the San Francisco service so long as that service in its present or any modified condition shall be continued, or by any substituted service by way of San Francisco, or by any other rou e, the intent being that a regular fortnightly mail contract, as nearly as possible, between New Zealand and the United Kingdom shall be maintained. The Postmaster-General is to have power to detain a vessel for twentyfour hours, on payment of L2OO for that period, and it is {agreed that all mail matter posted in New Zealand between the date of the despatch of the San Francisco mail and the departure of vessels under this contract, shall, unless

specially addressed to be forwarded by another route, be sent by such contract vessels. This shall also apply to correspondence posted in the Uni.tec Kingdom and Ireland, so far as the Postmaster General of New Zealand may be able to influence the Imperial Post liice authorities. After referring to the number of days to be occupied on the passage. Clause 16 provides that if during the continuance of the contract the company shall avail itself of any route across or through the Isthmus of Darien, at or near Panama, for the purpose of conveying the mails, then the respective times for such conveyance shall be subject to revision, and such shorter times substituted therefore as the Postmaster-General and company may agree, and, in default of such agreement, the Postmaster-General may absolutely fix such shorter times, 'the company are to be paid L 5 per hour for every hour under contract time, and L 5 per honr is to be deducted for every hour over the

time. Should the steamer not be at Plymouth or New Zealand on the contract date of leaving the c mpany will be

liable for the sum. of L2OO for the first day, and LSO for every successive twentyfour hours which mails are delayed. Clause 19 provides that ‘‘so long as the efficient performances of the service hereby contracted for are not interfered with the Company may carry mails for any other country or colony at rates not less than those payable by the PostmasterGeneral hereunder or such other rates as may from time to time be approved of by the Postmaster-General, but the Company shall have no claims against the Post-master-General or the Government of New Zealand to any postage nor to any money on account thereof for mails carried in any vessel employed under this contract, or on account of any services rendered, except as herein specially agreed to be paid.” Clause 29 is as follows : “ If the Company shall fail to commence the performances of the services hereby contracted to be pei funned aceoid’mg to the provisions thereof, or having com-

menced the same shall refuse or wilfully n -gleet to cairy on the same according {to the true intent and meaning of these present?, the Jompany shall forfeit and p iy to the Postmaster-General the sum of •seven thousand five hundred pounds (L 7,500) as by way of liquidated damages and not by way of penalty.” Ad deputes are to be left to arbitration. There are forty-three clauses in the contract,