F.—B

4

AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND.

No. 11. The Acting Superintendent, Eastern Extension Company, Wakapuaka, to the Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington. Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company (Limited), Sir, — Cable Bay, Wakapuaka, 21st December, 1903. I have the honour, by direction, to inform you that this company will from this date accept and signal, free of cost to the sender, the name of the country in all cablegrams where such may be deemed necessary by your Department, as is done by the Pacific Cable Board. I have, &c, H. E. A. Twyford, The Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington. Acting-Superintendent.

PACIFIC CABLE.

BUILDINGS, DEPOT, FINANCE, ETC.

No. 12. The Secretary, Pacific Cable Board, London, to the Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington. 24, Queen Anne's Gate, London, S.W., 28th February, 1903. Si ßj Treasury Audit. In view of the Treasury audit of this Board's accounts for the financial year, 1902-3, it is desirable that the certified statement of your Government's expenditure in connection with the Doubtless Bay cable-station, including any vouchers which you may consider necessary to support such statement, should be addressed to this office as soon after the 31st proximo as possible, and I am therefore directed by the Pacific Cable Board to request you to be good enough to give the necessary directions for their preparation, and to afford Mr. Hertslet, the Board's Superintendent, an opportunity of certifying that the buildings and accessories supplied to that station are in accordance with the plans and specifications, and accurately described in the accounts. I am, &c, The Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington. Hugh Latham, Secretary

No. 13. The Secretary, Pacific Cable Board, Loudon, to the Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington. Sir,— 24, Queen Anne's Gate, London, S.W., 20th March, 1903. I am directed by the Pacific Cable Board to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of your letter of the 11th February [No. 115, F.-8, 1903], informing me of your Government's acceptance of this Board's proposal that the colony should pay an annual sum equal to 6 per cent, on half the capital cost of station buildings at Doubtless Bay, to cover its proportion of rent, repairs, and superintendence, the whole of the buildings becoming the property of the Pacific Cable Board on payment of such capital outlay ; also, that your Government will refund to the Board the actual salaries and foreign-service allowances of the operators engaged on the land-line service, leaving the alternative suggestion of a composition payment under this head to be considered at a later date. The Board further observe that your Government cannot accept the proposal that half the cost of the abstract and check clerks at the station should be borne by the colony, for the reason that it employs a duplicate staff of its own. The Board appreciate the justice of this reasoning and withdraws the proposal, which was put forward in the belief that the whole of the checking and abstract work was carried out by the station staff. I have, &c, The Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington. Hugh Latham, Secretary.