15

letter was therefore destroyed. The Ariel
sailed for Wellington on the following
morning and arrived here on Tuesday the
18th instant, up to this date neither the
Mail of the 5th nor of the 19th of August
have been received.

As if to make this the more vexatious,
the Sheperdess sailed from this port for
Otago, on Wednesday, the 19th instant;
the Canterbury is about to sail for Lyttel-
ton; the Zingari will sail for Nelson, New
Plymouth, &c., to-morrow; and the Ariel
for Sydney on the same day. Thus had
the Mails been brought here by the Ariel
they might have been distributed to all
the Southern Provinces and replies sent at
least from this port, instead of which all
these opportunities are lost, and, from the
infrequency of communication with Otago
it is quite probable that the mails for that
place may lie here from one to two months
before they can be forwarded.

I hope, therefore, that His Excellency's
Government will not only grant the prayer
of the Memorials, but that pending arrange-
ments for the direct transmission of the
Mails, instructions may be sent to the au-
thorities in Melbourne to avail themselves
of direct vessels for this Port, whenever
such shall offer.

I have, &c.,
JAS. KELHAM, Chairman.
To the Honorable
the Colonial Secretary,
Auckland.

To His Excellency Colonel THOMAS GORE
BROWNE, Companion of the most
honorable order of the Bath, Governor
and Commander-in-Chief in and over
Her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand,
and Vice-Admiral of the same, &c., &c.
The humble memorial of the undersigned
merchants, traders, and residents of and
in Wellington, in the Province of Wel-
lington, New Zealand.
Humbly Sheweth,—

That your Memorialists have read with
much regret in a letter addressed by your
Excellency to the Colonial Secretary of
the Province of Victoria, your Excellency's
desire that Auckland shall be made the
port for the delivery of the Mails for the
whole of New Zealand.

That as this arrangement, if carried out
will entirely deprive the community here
of any advantage from the postal arrange-
ments made by the English Government,
your Memorialists respectfully but earnest-
ly protest against the Mails for this port
being sent to Auckland, and pray that
your Excellency will be pleased to direct,
that if no arrangements can be made for
the transmission of the Mails from Mel-
bourne direct, that they may be forwarded
to Sydney, to be sent on from thence, as
at present, by the earliest opportunity.

And your Memorialists, as in duty
bound will ever pray, &c.
[313 Signatures.]

MEMORIAL OF THE CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE.

To His Excellency Colonel THOMAS GORE
BROWNE, Companion of the most honor-
able order of the Bath, Governor and
Commander-in-Chief in and over Her
Majesty's Colony of New Zealand, and
Vice-Admiral of the same, &c., &c.
The humble memorial of JAMES KELHAM
and JOHN JOHNSTON, as Chairman and
Deputy-Chairman of the Wellington
Chamber of Commerce.
Humbly Sheweth,—

That the attention of the Chamber hav-
ing been called to the proposed Branch
Postal Communication from England via
Melbourne, and thence to Auckland, your
memorialists have been directed to press
upon your Excellency's Government the
very grave objections to the proposed
route which are entertained by the mer-
cantile community and public of this Pro-
vince.

Your Memorialists regard it as almost
impossible that the vessel that has to per-
form the voyage from Melbourne to Auck-
land and back within one month—
supposing it to be a steamer of considerable
power—can call at any other port in New
Zealand. The effect of this will be, that
another vessel must be employed to convey
the mails to the other Provinces, in
scarcely one of which will merchants be
enabled to reply to their letters earlier than
by the second monthly mail after that
by which those letters had been brought to
Melbourne; so that, instead of being
benefitted by the mail service, the South-
ern Settlements of New Zealand would be
in a worse position than they are at present,
the mails being now brought from Sydney
by the regular trading vessels to their
several ports.

Your Memorialists are far from wishing
to deprive Auckland of the advantage of
having its own mails conveyed direct to
that port, but at the same time, your
Memorialists respectfully ask that the
Southern Provinces may be put on a
similar footing, which they believe may be
effected if the branch service be performed