BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

Evening Star, Issue 3253, 24 July 1873, Page 3

BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

Wellington, July 24, The Independent says the Government intend to propose a measure absolutely fixing the rights of Provinces to borrow without the necessity of Parliamentary legislation. Each Province is to borrow upon its own credit upon specific security, the Colony not being liable for interest or sinking fund. The papers relative to the proposed mail service by Messrs M'Meckan, Blackwood, and Co., are to the following effect Messrs Blackwood and Co. will establish a service to and from Melbourne and Wellington, landing and receiving mails at the Bluff, Port Chalmers, and Lyttelton, up and down, for three years for L5,0l)0 per annum. The down mails arc to be delivered at the Bluff Harbor in seven days, Port Chalmers in eight, Lyttelton in nine anda-half, at Wellington ten and a-half days from the arrival of the P. and 0. boat in Hobson’s Bay, but should that mail steamer arrive more than two days before her due date, an equivalent in time is to bo added to the timetable named. The steamer is to remain in Melbourne two days beyond the due date of the mail, but no longer, and the mail will be sent on by tbo next available steamer. The mails from New Zealand to Melbourne are to be despatched from Wellington eleven days before the time of the departure of the P. and 0. boat! from Hobson’s Bay ; to call at Lyttelton, Port Chalmers, and Bluff, not loss than six and a-half clear days being given from the latter port to tranship mails at Melbourne. The steamer carrying the English mails is to be free from pilotage, harbor, and light dues. A supplementary offer is made to convey the mails to and from Nelson, Grey mouth, and Hokitika, landing and receiving mails at the two latter ports, weather permitting, free of extra charge. The papers also contain telegrams from Mr Macandrew, under date 22nd July, conveying an offer from Messrs Dalgety and Co., agents of the firm in Dunedin, to deliver the Suez mail inward at the Bluff, Port Chalmers, Lyttelton, Wellington, Nelson, Grey mouth, and Hokitika, and to receive outward mails from these ports, beginning at Hokitika and ending at the Bluff, for three years, at LSOO a month, within nine and a-half days from Melbourne to Wellington, computed from the expiry of twentyfour hours given to the steamers to prepare for sailing, after the arrival of the Suez mail steamer, and within eleven days from Wellington to Melbourne. Further communications are to the effect that the last-named services would bo performed at the price of L 5.000 per annum, but it requires the sanction of Messrs M‘MecUan, Blackwood, and Co,, of Melbourne,