No 9.

Downing-street,
24th January, 1855.

SIR,—I have submitted to the Queen the Rules
and Orders of the Legislative Council and House
of Representatives of New Zealand, which ac-
companied your Despatch No. 59, of 6th July;
and I have to inform you that Her Majesty has
been pleased to confirm and allow the same.

I have &c.,
G. GREY.

The Officer administering
the Government of New
Zealand.

No. 13.

Downing-street,
2nd March, 1855.

SIR,—I have submitted to the Queen the Ad-
ditional Rules and Standing Orders of the Legis-
lative Council and Assembly of New Zealand,
which accompanied your Despatch No. 83, of the
18th of September, and I have to inform you that
Her Majesty has been pleased to approve and
allow the same.

I have &c.,
G. GREY.

The Officer administering
the Government of New
Zealand.

No. 6.

Downing-street,
19th January, 1855.

SIR,—I transmit for your information
copies of three letters:—

1st. From the Secretary to the Associa-
tion for promoting Postal Steam Commu-
nication with Australia,

2nd. From the Chairman of the Aus-
tralian Steam Navigation Company via
Panama, and

3rd. From Mr. A. Gabrielli, and a copy
of the letter which I directed to be addressed
to them in answer. All these letters re-
late to the present state of the arrange-
ments for the conveyance of the mails be-
tween this country and the Australian Co-
lonies, and the expediency of establishing
more efficient means for the performance
of the service.

I likewise enclose the copy of a letter
from the Secretary to the Postmaster-
General in answer to the reference which I
caused to be made of the above-mentioned
communications to that department.

I have &c.
G. GREY.

The Officer administering
the Government of New
Zealand.

Association for promoting Steam Communi-
cation with Australia Committee Rooms,
60, Fenchurch-street,
London, Nov. 7, 1854.

SIR,—In transmitting you the accompanying
Pamphlet, recently published by this Association,
permit me respectfully to solicit on your part an
attentive consideration of the facts it discloses,
and to express a hope that in virtue of your offi-
cial connexion with the Colonies, you will inter-
pose to urge on the Postmaster-General the im-
portance of no longer deferring those improve-
ments in our Australian postal service which are
so urgently required.

90

The excessive irritation and annoyance created
in the Colonies by the present slow, infrequent,
and highly irregular transit of the mail, is evi-
denced by the extracts we publish from the Co-
lonial press; on the other hand, the prejudicial
effect to this country, in a social as well as com-
mercial point of view, of the state of things
complained of, requires no comment.

In order to satisfy you of the magnitude of the
interests affected by the want of speed and irre-
gularity existing in the Australian postal service,
I beg respectfully to direct your attention to the
Tables of British Exports for the year 1853, which
we have compiled from Parliamentary Docu-
ments, and published, page 21, of the accompany-
ing Pamphlet. You will find that our Australian
exports for the above year had reached the
astonishing sum of £14,506,532, being £1,451,070
in excess of our exports to the United States, and
far beyond our exports to any other part of the
world.

I have, &c.,
(Signed) W. C. MORGAN,
Secretary.

The Right Honorable
the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

The Australian Direct Steam Navigation
Company via Panama Offices,
62, Moorgate-street,
London, Nov. 18, 1854.

SIR,—Referring to our Secretary's letter of the
31st October, stating that the Directors of this
Company would shortly bring the subject of
Steam Communication with the Australian Co-
lonies prominently under the notice of the Co-
lonial Department, we beg leave to trouble you
with this communication, in which it will be our
endeavour, as succinctly as possible, to place the
subject in a practical point of view.

Before entering into the merits of the project
proposed to be carried out by the Australian
Direct Steam Navigation Company via Panama,
we think it right to inform you of its present po-
sition, and the circumstances which have, up to
this time, retarded its progress.

Upon obtaining a Royal Charter of Incorpora-
tion, under date of the 24th of June, 1853, it was
considered proper to issue the prospectus to the
public with as little delay as possible; unfor-
tunately, however, in consequence of the political
differences with Russia at that period, daily as-
suming a more warlike appearance, public en-
terprise was paralized, and, in common with many
other sound projects, we failed in securing the
amount of capital stipulated to be subscribed
for prior to commencing operations as one of
the conditions of the Charter.

Having succeeded by great perseverance in
forming the nucleus of a public Company to
carry out an undertaking of such national im-
portance, the Directors, in common with the
shareholders, are unwilling to relinquish the ad-
vantages already gained, or to relax their efforts
to carry to a successful issue an undertaking now
so urgently called for, and by which the only
efficient, expeditious, and regular postal communi-
cation can be maintained between Great Britain
and her important and rapidly rising Colonies in
the Pacific Ocean.

Time, however, has now furnished the data by
which the relative efficiency of the several routes
to Australia can fairly be tested, which is no
longer matter of theory, but matter of fact. For
two years and a half the route via the Isthmus
of Suez, and that by the way of the Cape of
Good Hope, have been fairly tried, and the result
has more than verified our original computations,