The Westport Times. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 471, 27 February 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1869.

A. "Wellington telegram states that the Melbourne mail tenders are not yet decided upon, but our information from other sources encourages the belief that some definite arrangement for, at least, the Suez mails, has been entered into. The tenderers made no secret of having tendered not only for the Wellington direct route, but for several suppositious routes, and, if the information of the Hokitika Daily News is correct, Hokitika is to be made, each month, the first landing place of the mails received by the Suez route, which is now, of course, the only route available far the conveyance of the mails for this colony. Our contemporary writes as having derived his information from the " very best authority," and according to that authority the arrangement is this: —A boat belonging to Messrs M'Meckan and Blackwood • will be in readiness to meet the monthly Suez mail, and will then come direct to Hokitika. It will land the Canterbury, probably the Otago, and certainly the Westland mails, and then will proceed direct to Wellington, from which port the Northern mails, and those of Nelson and Marlborough, unless some arrangement to the contrary, be made, will be distributed. How the northern part of the West Coast is to be supplied with its mails is not stated. It is suggested by our contemporary that, the matter being what he calls a personal one to Nelson, the authorities of this Province ought to deal with it as they may deem most advisable for their interests. "Were the Post-office a Provincial department, it would, no doubt, be the duty of the Province to deal with it directly, but it is for the Postmaster - General to make such arrangements as will include both the western territory of the Province and Nelson proper, as the town of Nelson and its suburbs may, by pure courtesy, be called. It is, however, well worthy the consideration of the inhabitants of Westport how far the ready receipt of the mails from the new point of arrival may be expedited by the fact of a steam-tender being regularly stationed at the Buller, and the fact of this new arrangement may also be fairly included in calculations to be made by the Provisional Committee appointed at the public meeting of last night.