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No. 67. The General Manager, Union Steam Ship Company, Dunedin, to the Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington. Sir, — Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand (Limited), Dunedin, 9th August, 1909. 1 have to acknowledge with thanks the due receipt of your letter of the 30th ultimo, regarding the Wellington-Papeete mail-service. We received by last mail from our San Francisco agents, Messrs. J. D. Spreckels and Bros. Company, the first remittance of mail -money paid to them by the United States Post Office, and I have pleasure in enclosing for your perusal copies of memoranda from the United States Post Office and of our agent's letter to Washington in acknowledgment thereof. We shall feel very much obliged if you will kindly compare the details [not printed] with the deliveries made to your Department. We have not got complete records here of the mails carried, but we suppose that the " foreign closed mails " means mails transported by the American Post Office for the British and other Post Offices, while " U.S.A. mails " means those from United States points exclusively. We shall be very pleased indeed if you will kindly advise us whether our surmise is correct. You will observe that our agents have kept the question of rates of payment open, in view of our claim to full Postal Union rates. I have, kc., R. McK. McLennan, for (leneral Manager. The Secretary, General Post Office. Wellington. [P.O. 09/311(2).] «

Enclosure in No. 67. The Oceanic Steamship Company, San Francisco, to the Second Assistant Postmaster-General, Washington. Sir,— San Francisco, 28th June, 1909. We acknowledge receipt of communications covering the sums of $1,640-86. and.sss3-64, both sums being mail-payment to the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand for the carriage of mails from Papeete to New Zealand and Australia. As agents of the Union Steam Ship Company, we have accepted the amounts, although the company still believes that it is entitled to Postal Union rates instead of those specified in your letter. We understand that there will be further communications with you on this subject, emanating from New Zealand, and this present communication is simply to advise that in accepting the amounts as above stated, we do not wish it to be understood that the said amounts :tre satisfactory to our principals. We have, &c, Oceanic Steamship Company, F. S. Samuels". lion. Joseph Stewart, Second Assistant Postmaster-General, Washington, D.C.

No. 68. The Assistant General Manager, Union Steam Ship Company, Dunedin, to the Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington. Sir, — Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand (Limited), Dunedin, 19th August, 1909. I am enclosing herewith two copies of the contract for the conveyance of mails between New Zealand and Tahiti. We presume you will have these completed, and let us have one copy back by an early opportunity. .. I have, &c, D. A. Aiken, The Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington. Assistant (leneral Manager. [P.O. 09/311.|

No. 69. The Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington, to the General Manager, Union Steam Ship Company, Dunedin. Sir,— General Post Office, Wellington, 3rd September, 1909. In reference to your letter of the 19th August from your Assistant General Manager, I have now the honour to forward herewith, signed by Ihe Acting Postmaster-General, a copy of the agreement between the Postmaster-General and your company for the conveyance of mails between New Zealand and Tahiti. I have, &c, D. Robertson, Secretary. The General Manager, Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand (Limited), Dunedin. [P.O. 09/311.1

Enclosure in No. 69. Contract tor Conveyance of Ocean Mails. Agreement between the Postmaster-General in- New Zealand ami the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, Limited, toe hie Conveyance of Mails between New Zealand and Tahiti. This agreement made and entered into this nineteenth day of August, one thousand nine hundred and nine, between the Postmaster-General of the Dominion of New Zealand (hereinafter referred to as "the Postmaster-General," in which term his successors in office are included), acting in pursuance