SAN FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE.

E.—No. 4,

53

Chalmers ; and provided further, that such vessel shall, on the next succeeding voyage, proceed from Port Chalmers to San Francisco by way of and calling at Lyttelton, AVellington, and Auckland. 15. After the completion of the first thirteen services between San Francisco and New Zealand, each way, the Contractors may at their option, twice during each twelve months, run the vessel arriving at Auckland from San Francisco to Sydney, or to Sydney and to Aielbourne, in the same way as is provided by the preceding clause ; but save and except as is provided by the preceding clause, and by this clause, the vessel arriving at Auckland from San Francisco shall proceed to Port Chalmers, and from Port Chalmers to San Francisco, as is provided by clause 6. 16. It shall be lawful for the Postmaster-General, but not for the Contractors, to make any arrangements he may think fit with any of the Australian Governments, and with the Government of New Caledonia; and all sums payable under such arrangements shall be equally divided between the Government of New Zealand and the Contractors : Provided that no such arrangements shall be held to compel the Contractors without their consent to perform any service not provided for by this agreement. 17. The Contractors shall not, nor shall any person or persons with their consent or concurrence, run any steam vessel to New Caledonia, or the Fiji Islands, or to any of the Australian Colonies, except from a port in New Zealand ; and no mails whatever shall be carried on board any such steam vessel or branch steam vessel running from New Zealand, except with the consent of the PostmasterGeneral in writing first obtained. 18. The days and hours of departure for the vessels employed under this contract shall be those specified in a table to be furnished by the Postmaster-General: Provided that the Postmaster-General may from time to time alter such days and hours on giving reasonable notice to the Contractors of the required alteration, provided that no such alteration shall render necessary the employment of an additional steam vessel, except as is herein provided ; and the altered days and hours shall be observed and kept as if the same had been provided for in this contract, and the contractors shall pay the sum of two pounds per hour for every hour's delay in the departure of any vessel after the specified time. 19. The Postmaster-General shall pay to the Contractors the sum of two pounds per hour for every hour that any mail shall be ready for delivery in the Port of Auckland or San Francisco less than the contract time; and the Contractors shall pay to tho Postmaster-General the sum of two pounds per hour for every hour that shall be required for delivery of any mail in Auckland or San Francisco in excess of the contract time ; but if good cause for any such excess be shown to the Postmaster-General, the payment in respect thereof may be remitted at his discretion. 20. In respect to the steamer to be run from Auckland to Sydney, it shall be lawful for the Post-master-General to declare that in addition to the provision made in the preceding clause for the Ports of Auckland and San Francisco, a similar provision shall apply to the delivery of mails in the Ports of Sydney and San Francisco ; and in such case, this contract shall be read as though there had been inserted herein an additional clause, in the same words as the preceding clause, substituting throughout the word " Sydney " for Auckland. 21. All sums payable to the Contractors by way of subsidy shall be paid by monthly instalments, immediately prior to the departure of each steam vessel on her return voyage from Auckland to San Francisco, to an Agent to be appointed by the Contractors to receive the same ; and if default shall be made in the payment of any such instalment at the appointed time, the Contractor shall be entitled to receive as liquidated damages the sum of one hundred pounds, and an additional sum of one hundred pounds for every month during which such instalment shall remain unpaid. 22. All payments of premiums for the delivery of mails in less than the contract time, and of sums by way of penalty for delay in the delivery of mails, as for other breaches of this contract, shall be adjusted every twelve months, and the balance paid accordingly : Provided that all sums so payable to the Government of New Zealand may be deducted from any sum due to the Contractors by way of subsidy. 23. No mails whatever to or from any of the Colonies of Australia, or to or from New Caledonia, except as hereinbefore provided, shall be received on board or carried in any of the steam vessels employed under this contract without the written consent of the Postmaster-General; and for every breach of this stipulation with the consent or connivance of the Contractors, they shall forfeit the sum of five hundred pounds as liquidated damages, to be deducted from any sums then due or to become due by way of subsidy under this contract. 24. In pursuance of the Postal Convention existing between the United States Government and the Colonial Government of New Zealand, and in order to insure reasonable contributions from the Australian Colonies and New Caledonia for mail services to be performed for them, neither the Postmaster-General nor the Contractors, without the joint consent of both parties, shall or will transmit or permit to be transmitted, and will use their best endeavours to prevent the transmission of all mails to or from any of the Australian Colonies, or to or from New Caledonia, unless such Colony or New Caledonia respectively shall enter into arrangements with the Postmaster-General, as provided by clause 15 ; and in case of any wilful breach of this stipulation, the part}' breaking the same shall forfeit and pay to the other the sum of five hundred pounds as liquidated damages. 25. The Contractors shall abide by and conform to any regulations that may be made jointly by the United States Post Office authorities and the Postmaster-General for the prevention of colonies not contributing to the subsidies payable from participating indirectly in the advantages of the mail service established under this contract. 26. The term " all mails," throughout this Contract, shall be taken to mean all letters, newspapers, books, printed papers, and other things usually transmitted by post, and the boxes, bags, and packages, in which the same are enclosed, and also all empty boxes, bags, and packages, and other stores and articles used in carrying on the Post Office service, which shall be sent to or from any Post Office ; and no letters, newspapers, or printed papers other than books, shall be knowingly carried in any form or manner other than as mails, without the consent of the Postmaster-General; but this shall not apply to letters from the Contractors to their agents : and for every breach of this stipulation the Contractors 13