The Telephone. WITH WHICH INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 284, 13 November 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. WITH WHICH INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13.

From a perusal of the following our readers will understand the nature of the contract recently concluded by Parliament with the New Zealand Shipping Company for the conveyance of mails by the direct steamers. It provides that the Company shall for a period of five years carry all the mails which the Post-master-Generals shall require them to convey at any time between Plymouth, England, and either the ports of Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, and Port Chalmers, in New Zealand, and any intermediate ports at which the Company's steamers may call. The Company are to keep ready for such purpose the steamers Ruapehu, Tongariro, Aorangi, Kaikoura, and Rimutaka, provided, in case of accident, the Company may use a substitute vessel, which shall not, except in special cases, with the permission of the PostmasterGeneral, be of less than 2,500 gross tonnage. Powers of inspection of the vessels, &c., are given to the Post-master-General, and four-weekly service, alternative with the ’Frisco service, is stipulated for-; the intent being that regular fortnightly mail communication, as nearly as possible, between New Zealand and the United Kingdom should be maintained. The Postmaster-General on payment of £2OO is entitled, if necessary, to delay the sailing of a steamer for 24 hours. For the conveyance of mails under this contract the Postmaster-General will pay to the Company at the following rates :— Letters, 12s per lb; packets, is per lb ; newspapers, 6d per lb ; provided that the payments hereby agreed to be macle shall be open to be reconsidered, in the event of the Postmaster-General of Great Britain or his department retaining for that department more than the equivalent of the British inland rate of postage on the outward correspondence, or deciding to allow the Colony a larger share of the outward postages, or in case of the Colony of New Zealand proposing to reduce its rates of postage ; but such reconsideration shall only take effect after the Postmaster-General has given six calendar months’ previous

notice in writing to the Company of his intention so to do. It is also arranged that all mail matter posted in New Zealand between the date of despatch of the San Francisco mail and the departure of the vessels under this contract shall, unless specially addressed to be forwarded by any other route, be sent by such contract vessels. This shall also apply to correspondence posted in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as far as the Postmaster-General of New Zealand may be able to '’influence the Imperial Post Office authorities ; provided that nothing in this clause shall be deemed to give the Company any claim against the Postmaster-General in the event of the postal authorities in Great Britain sending any such mail matter by a different route. In case of the loss of any of the mails by wreck of any vessel or otherwise the Company shall with all possible despatch, at their own cost, take measures as may be reasonably done to recover the mails so lost. The mails are to be conveyed from Plymouth to a New Zealand port in 1080 hours, and from the first port of departure in New Zealand to Plymouth in 1008 hours, the Company to receive a bonus of for every hour in which the voyage is performed in less than these times, and to pay a fine of for every hour that the mail is overdue. If a steamer is not ready to put to sea at the specified time the Company is to pay by way of liquidated damages /"zoo and /*SO for each twenty-four hours that the steamer is delayed. The Postmaster-General is to have power of remission or reduction, and the maximum penalty for any one month is not to exceed X*iooo. During the continuance of the contract all steam vessels employed therein are to be exempt from the payment of light dues at New Zealand ports, and also from the payment of harbor dues as defined by “The Harbors Act, 1878,” at the first port of arrival in the Colony. In case of a breach of covenant by the Company, or great or habitual nonobservance of the contract, the Post-master-General may terminate it without notice, the Company, however, having the right to submit the question whether his action is justfiable to arbitration. The same power of reference is also given in regard to disputes generally. If the Company fail to commence the performance of the services, or having commenced the same, shall refuse or wilfully neglect to carry on the same, the Company shall forfeit to the Postmasrer-General the sum Z*7s°o as by way of liquidated damages.