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SUPERINTENDENT OF HAWKE'S BAY, TO COLONIAL SECRETARY. Superintendent's Office, Napier, March 3, iB6O. Sir,— Mr. Kirkwood, the owner of the " White Swan," has given notice that after the present month he will be unable to carry on the 2nd or additional Mail Service between Auckland, this place, and Wellington, for the sum of £1000 per annum, which you have conditionally agreed to pay h m on the part of the General Government, and the payment made him by this Province, so long as the " Wonga Wonga '' continues to run, of £500 per annum, or in all £1500 per annum. Mr. Kirkwood asks in addition to his present subsidies other £1500 per annum, which I presume he is not likely to get, as the Provincial Government of Hawke's Bay are disinclined to enter into any such arrangements with him, and I,do not expect that so heavy an additional subsidy would be paid by your Government for the Mail Service merely, seeing that it can be performed via Wellington at a much cheaper rate. Mr. Kirkwood asks Fifteen Hundred Pouuds per annum, as at present paid him for n additional Monthly Service from Wellington only, by which our Mails would be brought up here by the " White Swan," about 21st or 22nd of each month, and Replies be forwarded to Wellington in time for the Mail Steamer that leaves Wellington on the Ist of each month, and which would be, as far as the Mail Service is concerned, a much more satisfactory arrangement that the present one, as it often happens that answers sent via Wellington to letters received from Sydney via Auckland, do not reach Sydney till 10th or 11th of the month, when, from the Steamer having already started for Auckland, no replies can be sent till the following month. I trust that the matter of the Mail Service to this place will receive the earnest consideration of your Government, and that you will be pleased to mike such arrangements with Mr. Kirkwood as may effect, at any rate, the principal object of the regular arrival and departure of the English and Sydney Maails, even though the additional Monthly Service to Auckland, from which many advantages have resulted, should have for the present to be discontinued. I have, &c, (Signed) T. H. Fitzgerald, Superintendent. The Honorable The Colonial Secretary, Auckland. COLONIAL SECRETARY, TO SUPERINTENDENT OF HAWKE's BAY. Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, 9th March, 1860. Sir,— I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Honor's letter of the 3rd instant, reporting an additional claim by Mr. Kirkwood, on account of the Services of the " White Swan," and to state that, in consequence of the near approaching Session of the General Assembly,' when I propose to refer to a Committee of Parliament, the whole question of the Steam Postal Service, no new arrangements will be made by the General Government with respect to it, until an opportunity has been afforded to the Legislature of expressing its opinion on the subject. Temporary arrangements, if necessary, may be made by the Provincial Government of Hawke's Bay, whereby the Services of the "White Swan " or the " Wonga Wonga" can be secured in order to expedite the conveyance of Mails to and from Napier. If the Provincial Government should desire the English Mails to be sent via Wellington, immediate instructions to that effect will be given, in which case in all probability they could be conveyed more cheaply by the "Wonga Wonga " than by the " White Swan." I have, &c, (Signed) E. W. Stafford. His Honor The Superintendent of Hawke's Bay, Napier. COPY OP A DESPATCH FROM THE GOVEROR-GENERAL OP AUSTRALIA, TO GOVERNOR GORE BROWNE, C.B. Government House, Sydney, New South Wales, 12th December, 1859. Sir,— I forward herewith a copy of a Despatch which I have just received from His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, enclosing copies of a communication addressed by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Agent appointed by the Colony of New South Wales to negotiate the arrangements required for the establishment of a second line of Steam Postal Communication via Panama. From the enclosed documents it would appear that the general question of Steam Postal Communication has been sab-