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CONFERENCE.

No. 24. The Secretary, Pacific Cable Board, London, to the Superintendent of the Board, Bamfield. (Telegram.) London, 16th September, 1904. Chairman regrets that he cannot sanction messages between New Zealand Government and its representative, Sir Sandford Fleming, being carried free. They may be sent at Government rate.

No. 25. The Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington, to the Chairman, Pacific Cable Board, London. (Telegram.) Wellington, 19th September, 1904. Astonished learn Board determined insist payment messages between Sir Sandford Fleming and myself. Entirely in interests of Pacific cable and Conference. Sir Sandford specially visited Bamfield exchange views, and understood he would have free use of cable. Board's decision marked contrast many gratuitous services rendered by us. Urge Board reconsider.

No. 26. The Chairman, Pacific Cable Board, London, to the Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington. (Telegram.) London, 21st September, 1904. Board fully recognise and appreciate all that Government of New Zealand has done for cable, and earnestly desire to reciprocate, but regrets that it cannot rightly make any exception to the general rule, that all Government business should be paid for at Government rates. They wish to point out that the other Governments are paying for their telegrams on this basis. No. 27. The Chairman, Pacific Cable Board, London, to the Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington. The Pacific Cable Board, Queen Anne's Chambers, gin _ London, S.W., 26th September, 1904. I have the honour to acknowledge and confirm the following telegrams referring to the proposed free transmission of messages over the Pacific cable between your Government and Sir Sandford Fleming, who has been delegated to represent them at the forthcoming Conference [Nos. 24, 25, and 26]. n . ~ In this matter the Board feel that the right principle is that all Government messages should be paid for at Government rates, a principle to which the Agents-General themselves conform, and from which, in view of the fact that all the contributing Governments have a proportionate interest in the receipts of the cable, there can be no reason for departure in any particular case. I desire, further, to point out that had the Board arrived at any contrary conclusion it would not have been to the interest of the Government of New Zealnd, for it is plain that if the privilege of sending free telegrams on matters relating to the Conference had been accorded to that Government the privilege must necessarily have been extended to all the other Governments which would be represented in London, including the Government of the United Kingdom; but as the Government of the United Kingdom has made a far larger use of the cable in this matter than its partners, bearing as it did the whole burden of arranging for the Conference, it is clear that it would have obtained the greatest measure of relief from the concession, while the contribution of all the Governments would have been necessarily increased by the amount which these free messages represented. The Government of the United Kingdom, however, have paid without question for all the many messages which it has transmitted on the subject of the Conference, and the Board therefore, on this around alone, could not have avoided charging the other Governments interested for similar communication. Ihave '^ C - n ■ S. Walpole, Chairman. The Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington.

No. 28. Sir Sandford Fleming, Ottawa, to the Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington. Dfar Sir Joseph Ward,— Winterholme, Ottawa, Bth October, 1904. Referring to my cable-message of 16th September from Bamfield, I thought Mr. Reynolds would be able to furnish me with the total traffic passing between Australasia and Europe by both systems Accordingly, I wrote him in the middle of August requesting him to do so. He seems,