8

the English Mails of August 19th. The "Ariel"
schooner was then lying there, just ready to
sail for Wellington. The Captain immediately
wrote a letter to the Postmaster asking for the
Mails. This letter he took to the office of the
Mail-master in Sandridge, who told him that it
was utterly useless to forward the application,
as a similar one had been refused because the
orders were that the Mails for New Zealand
were to be sent on to Sydney. The 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 Mails of the 5th nor of
the 19th of August have been received.

As if to make this the more vexatious, the
"Shepherdess" sailed from this Port for Otago,
on Wednesday, the 19th instant; the "Can-
terbury" is about to sail for Lyttelton; 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 Go-
vernment will not only grant the prayer of the
Memorials, but that pending arrangements for
the direct transmission of the Mails, instructions
may be sent to the authorities 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 honora-
ble order of the Bath, Governor and Com-
mander-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty's
Colony of New Zealand, and Vice-Admi-
ral 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 Excel-
lency to the Colonial Secretary of the Province
of Victoria, your Excellency's desire that
Auckland shall be made the port for the de-
livery of 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 arrangements made
by the English Government, your Memorialists
respectfully but earnestly 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 Melbourne
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 honora-
ble order of the Bath, Governor and Com-
mander-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty's
Colony of New Zealand, and Vice-Admi-
ral 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 having
been called to the proposed Branch Postal Com-
munication from England via Melbourne, and
thence to Auckland, your memoralists have
been directed to press upon your Excellency's
Government the very grave objections to the
proposed route which are entertained by the
mercantile community and public of this Pro-
vince.

Your Memorialists regard it as almost impos-
sible that the vessel that has to perform the
voyage from Melbourne to Auckland 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 benefited by the Mail ser-
vice, the Southern Settlements of New Zea-
land 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 memoralists 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 by
two steamers instead of one,—the one visiting
Auckland, from whence the Mails might be
conveyed to New Plymouth, and perhaps, to
Nelson; and the other visiting Otago, Lyttel-
ton, and Wellington, calling at Otago first, and
taking her final departure from Wellington,—
unless it should be found practicable to include
Nelson.

Your Memoralists further venture to submit
that by treating the branch service as one-al-