E.—2

8

It is useless, in my opinion, for mc to attempt to reopen the question unless the Colonial Office shows a disposition to allow me to do so. I think tho question of the money-cost is immaterial beside that of the slight cast upon New Zealand, in common with New South Wales, by the secret negotiation with Victoria, and the non-recognition of the representatives the two colonies were especially invited to appoint. The matter is one for the Governments of the colonies to take up. Of course, it is obvious that the procedure was aimed at the San Francisco Service, and will probably be fatal to it. The Treasury met Mr. Berry cordially, because he proposed a contract which, giving to Sydney the terminus of a fortnightly service, will make that colony disposed to relinquish the San Francisco Service, and concentrate the services again by the route which the Treasury has always favoured. I, of course, shall be willing to do anything you wish ; but it seems to me my last letter exhausts my powers, and leaves the matter in the hands of the Government of the colony. I have, &c, Julius Vogel, The Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington. Agent-General.

Enclosure 1 in No. 15. Mr. Bramston to the Agent-General for New Zealand. Sib, — Downing Street, 4th June, 1879. With reference to your letter of the 30th of April,* and to the reply from this department of the sth of May,f I am directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to transmit to you, for your information, copies of the replies which he has received from the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to the representations which you and the Agent-General for New South Wales have made on behalf of the Governments of New Zealand and New South Wales, that the present arrangement respecting the division of postal receipts may continue in force, as regards the San Francisco Service, until the termination, in November, 1883, of the contract for that service by which New Zealand and New South Wales are now bound. A similar letter has been addressed to the Agent-General for New South Wales. I have, &c, The Agent-General for New Zealand, London. J. Bramston.

Enclosure 2 in No. 15. The Treasury to the Colonial Office. Sir,— Treasury Chambers, 13th May, 1879. The Lords Commissiouers of Her Majesty's Treasury have had before them Mr. Bramston's letter of the sth instant, transmitting copy of a letter from the Agent-General for New Zealand, in reply to one in which he had been informed, in common with the other Agents-General, of the arrangements which my Lords were prepared to agree to for the conveyance of the Australian mails after the Ist February next, wherein Sir Julius Vogel urges the claim of the Government of New Zealand and that of New South Wales to a continuance of the present arrangement, so far as relates to the carriage of mails by San Francisco, until the contract which those Governments have for the conveyance of such mails expires in November, 1883. I am commanded to request that you will state to Secretary Sir Michael Hicks Beach that the whole question, as respects the postal arrangements with the Australian Colonies and New Zealand, is so clearly set forth in the circular letter which the Secretary of State addressed to the Governors of those colonies on the 17th January last, that my Lords have little to add thereto. The Agent-General for New Zealand is fully aware that when the arrangements to which he refers were made, they were expressly limited to a period of five years, and my Lords, in lately agreeing to extend such period to the Ist of February, 1880, the date when the present Imperial contract with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company comes to an end, cannot but feel that they have acted in a very liberal spirit towards the colonies concerned. The Ist February, 1880, on which date a new contract which the Imperial Post Office have entered into with the Peninsular and Oriental Company will come into operation, must therefore be considered a fresh starting-point. The presence in this country of Mr. Berry, the Premier of Victoria, afforded the opportunity of his having personal communication with me on the subject of the arrangement to be made for the division, after Ist February, 1880, between the Imperial and Colonial Post Offices, of the postage accruing on the correspondence with Victoria and other colonies whose mails are carried via King George's Sound; and, after some discussion with that gentleman, I felt myself warranted on the part of this Board, having reference to what I understood was the intention of the Victorian Government, to enter into a contract for the conveyance of mails once every fortnight between Ceylon and Melbourne, and probably Sydney, in consenting to the present arrangement under which the Victorian and other Australian mails are carried, free of cost, to the colonies between this country and Ceylon (excepting, of course, the mails sent via Brindisi, on which the foreign transit rates will have to be paid as at present) being continued; on the understanding, however, that in lieu of the inland rate of one penny per half-ounce letter on the outward correspondence, which is all that the Imperial Post Office now receives, twopence, as an equivalent to the inland rate on the outward and homeward correspondence, should be retained on the outward correspondence, leaving fourpence on the outward and the whole of the postage on the homeward correspondence to accrue to the colonies. Having agreed to this arrangement with Mr. Berry, my Lords intimated to the Secretary of State that it would bo equally applicable to Queensland, whose mails are now conveyed between this country

* Vide Enclosure 2 in No. 85 of F.-3, 1879. t Vide Enclosure 3 in No. 85 of F.-3, 1879.