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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4965, 20 February 1877, Page 2

A re-arrangement of the contract for the mail service via San Francisco has been effected. In another column we publish a lengthy precis of the correspondence and negotiations connected therewith. The following is the basis of the new contract:—“The Pacific Mail Company agrees to a total subsidy of £72,500, of which Sydney pays £40,000, contingent on the ratification of the arrangement by Parliament, and the New Zealand Government, £32,500. The steamers are to call at Auckland, and, optionally with the company, at Honolulu, but not at Fiji. By this route the New Zealand mails will; be delivered about two days earlier than under the former contract. They are to be distributed from and taken to Auckland at the expense of our Government. The service is to commence immediately, and no more of the company’s steamers are coming down the" coast.”. As the New Zealand Government has to pay the cost pf the coastal,service, it may be estimated that the total expense of the mail service to this colony will be some £37,500; and this will be within the limit of £40,000, which Parliament fixed the session before last, and which was subsequently exceeded. Altogether the Government and the colony are to .be . con-' gratulated on the result of the recent nego-’ Mations.