A.—2

4

The, Schedule before referred to. Aden. Hongkong. Newfoundland. Ascension. India (British). Niger Coast Protectorate. Bahamas. Johore. Niger Territory. Barbados. Lagos. St. Helena. Bermuda. Leeward Islands, viz., Sarawak. British Central Africa. Antigua, Seychelles. British Bast Africa. St. Kitts, Sierra Leone. British Guiana. Nevis, Straits Settlements. British Honduras. Dominica, Tobago. Canada. Montserrat, and Trinidad. Ceylon. The Virgin Islands. Turks and Caicos Islands. Cyprus. Malay States (federated), viz., Uganda. Falkland Islands. Perak, Windward Islands, viz., Fiji Islands. Selangor, Grenada, Gambia. Negri-Sembilan, and St. Lucia, and Gibraltar. Pahang. St. Vincent. Gold Coast Colony. Natal.

Enclosure No. 2. Memobandum containing Infobmation supplied to the Admibalty by the General Post Office in Letteb of 20th Decembee, 1898. On and after the 25th December, 1898, letters posted in the United Kingdom or in any of the places mentioned in the enclosed list, addressed to all persons—including commissioned officers— on board any of Her Majesty's ships abroad, and letters from all such persons addressed to the United Kingdom or to any place mentioned in the list, should, if sent enclosed in the ship's bags, be prepaid by means of British postage stamps at the rate of Id. the \ oz. So far as such letters are concerned, this extension will practically annul the existing regulalations referred to in Article 565 of the Queen's Eegulations and Admiralty Instructions, 1893 (Form S. 579), which require that, in order to pass at the present privileged rate of Id., letters addressed to or sent by seamen in the navy must not exceed \ oz. in weight; that the rank of the seaman and the name of the ship should be stated in the address ; and that, in the case of letters from seamen, the commanding officer's signature must appear on the cover, and the practice of stopping and returning seamen's letters when the special regulations have not been complied with will be discontinued so far as letters sent to the ships in the regular bags are concerned, while any insufficiently paid letters will be sent on charged with double the deficient postage at the new rate, to be dealt with on board as unprivileged letters are now dealt with when insufficiently paid. With regard to letters posted on shore, these, if sent from the United Kingdom to any place mentioned in the list, or if sent from any place mentioned in the list to the United Kingdom or to any of the other places mentioned, may be posted prepaid by means of British or colonial stamps, as the case may be, at the Id. rate, whatever the rank of the sender or addressee; but this will not apply to letters posted on shore at any place not specified in the list. In the latter case the regulations referred to in the preceding paragraph will still apply, but officers' letters sent in like circumstances should continue to be prepaid at the existing full rate of postage. Letters posted on shore in a foreign country by any person in the navy not on active service in that country will continue to be subject to the full rates of postage in force for the time being in the places where such letters are posted. It is to be particularly noted that the new regulations do not admit of letters from private persons in Australia, and other places where letter-postage still obtains, being taken on board Her Majesty's ships and posted in the ships' bags in order to secure transmission at the reduced rates. Admiralty, December, 1898.

No. 3. (No. 11.) My Lobd, — Downing Street, 10th February, 1899. I have the honour to transmit to you, for the information of your Ministers, with reference to your despatch No. 75 of the 12th December, the documents noted in the subjoined schedule rejecting the reserved Bill to amend the law of divorce, which had been reserved for the signification of Her Majesty's pleasure. I have, &c, EDWARD WINGFIELD, For the Secretary of State. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.

1.-l, 1899, >To. 24.