9

R—3b

that in which they may have originated. Also all empty bags, empty boxes, and other stores and articles used, or to be used, in carrying on the Post Office service; " Mail" means the aggregate of mails transmitted at any one time by any of the vessels for the time being employed in the mail service under this contract; and " Hours " means hours calculated according to Greenwich time. 2. The Contractors shall from time to time and at all times during the period of eight years, to be computed from the fifteenth day of November, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, convey all Her Majesty's mails which, and all other mails of whatever country or place which, the PostmastersGeneral or either of them shall at any time and from time to time require the Contractors to convey between Sydney and San Francisco and between San Francisco and Sydney, and between New Zealand and San Francisco and between San Francisco and New Zealand, and from and to all and every or any of those ports to and from the ports of Honolulu in the Sandwich Islands, and Kandavau in the Fiji Islands, and according to the routes within the respective times and in manner hereinafter provided ; and so long as the whole or any part of the services hereby agreed to be performed ought to be performed in pursuance of this contract, shall and will provide and keep seaworthy, and in complete repair and readiness for such purpose, a sufficient number of and not less than five good, substantial, and efficient screw steam vessels of the first class, and fully equal to Class 100 Al, Lloyd's Begister, and of not less gross registered tonnage than two thousand five hundred tons each, constructed of iron and propelled by first-rate engines of adequate power for a minimum continuous speed of eleven nautical miles per hour, and having spar decks, and large capacity for passengers and cargo, and ample ventilation for passing through tropical latitudes. One moiety of the passenger accommodation afforded by each vessel is to be reserved for and appropriated to passengers to and from each of the said colonies respectively. 3. The steam vessels to be employed under this contract shall be of the capacity aforesaid, and shall be always furnished with all necessary and proper machinery, engines, apparel, furniture, stores, tackle, boats, fuel, lamps, oil, tallow, provisions, anchors, cables, fire pumps and other proper means for extinguishing fire, lightning conductors, charts, chronometers, nautical instruments, and whatsoever else may be necessary for equipping the said vessels and rendering them constantly efficient for travelling at a minimum continuous speed of eleven nautical miles per hour, and for the service hereby agreed to be performed; and also manned and provided with competent and legally qualified officers, the master or commander having ample experience in command of screw steam vessels, and with a sufficient number of efficient engineers, and a sufficient crew of able seamen and other men, and with a competent surgeon; to be in all respects, as to vessels, engines, equipments, and capacity, subject in the first instance, and from time to time and at all times afterwards, to the approval of the Postmasters-General, or of such other person or persons as they shall jointly or severally, at any time or times or from time to time, authorize to inspect and examine the same, and no vessel shall be employed or used for the purposes of this contract until approved as aforesaid. 4. The Postmasters-General or either of them shall have full power, whenever and as often as they or he may deem it requisite, by any of their or his qualified officers or agents, to inspect the officers, engineers, and crew of all or any of the vessels employed or to be employed in the performance of this contract, and to survey all or any of such vessels, and the hulls thereof, and the engines, machinery, furniture, tackle, apparel, stores, and equipments of every such vessel; and any defect or deficiency that may be discovered on any such survey shall be forthwith repaired or supplied by the Contractors ; and for the purposes aforesaid the said vessels shall (if necessary) be opened in their hulls whenever the said officers or agents may so require. And if any such vessel, or any part thereof, or any engines, machinery, furniture, tackle, apparel, boats, stores, or equipments shall, on any such survey, be declared, by any such officers or agents unseaworthy or not adapted to the service hereby agreed to be performed, or any such officers, engineers, or crew shall be so declared ineligible, every vessel which shall be disapproved of, or in which such deficiency or defect shall appear, shall be deemed insufficient for any service hereby agreed to be performed, and shall not be again employed in the conveyance of mails until such defect or deficiency has been repaired or supplied, to the satisfaction of the PostmasterGeneral or officer requiring the same; and any of such officers, engineers, or crew declared ineligible shall not be employed in the said service. 5. The route by which the mails shall be conveyed as aforesaid shall be by way of Honolulu and Kandavau aforesaid, and vice versa, at each of which ports the said vessels shall call on each journey for the receipt and delivery of mails, allowing a sufficient time at each place for the purpose; but the said vessels shall not call at any other intermediate place without the consent in writing of the Postmasters-General. The mails shall be conveyed thirteen times in each year between San Francisco and the said colonies, and at the same rate between the said colonies and San Francisco, and the vessel respectively employed to convey the mail shall leave the respective ports of departure on the days and at the times to be from time to time appointed for the purpose by the Postmasters-General. The vessels conveying the mails from San Francisco shall proceed to New South Wales, and the mails for New Zealand shall be transhipped at the said port of Kandavau into and be conveyed by another of the said vessels to the colony, and the vessels conveying the mails to San Francisco shall proceed thither from New Zealand, and the mails from New South Wales shall be conveyed in another of the said vessels to the said port of Kandavau, and be there transhipped into and conveyed by the vessel going to San Francisco. The New South Wales mails shall be delivered at and despatched from the port of Sydney, and the New Zealand mails shall be delivered at and despatched from the ports of Port Chalmers, Lyttelton, Wellington, and Auckland respectively; and in passing Hawke's Bay the mail vessel shall (weather permitting) call off Napier to deliver and receive mails to and from that place, the said last-mentioned mails to be delivered to and received from a steam launch to be provided by the Postmaster-General of New Zealand; and the Contractors shall convey with the mails from or to San Francisco any local mails between the said ports of New Zealand respectively, as may be required by the Postmaster-General of New Zealand to be so conveyed. 2—F. 3b.