102
It is evident that this may in some cases
lead to great difficulty and confusion. It is of
course of the utmost importance that all the
Lights on a coast should be arranged on one
system, and with reference to each other, and
if, whilst one Colony is erecting a Light on its
own coast, the Board of Trade are erecting a
second Light on the coast of an adjoining
Colony without notice of the former Light,
the result may be that the Lights are made
similar in character, and may thus prove im-
pediments instead of aids to safe navigation.

The benefits to be derived from an arrange-
ment under which the Colonial authorities may
obtain the advantage of the experience of the
nautical advisers of the Board of Trade, and
of the three Lighthouse Boards of the United
Kingdom, are so fully adverted to in previous
correspondence on the subject, that it is un-
necessary to advert to them further.

But I am especially desirous of impressing
upon you that, in all cases where the Colony
under your Government intends or wishes to
erect, Lighthouses, or to alter Lights already
erected, without assistance or advice from the
Home Government, it is most desirable, that a
full intimation of such intention, and of the
plans by which it may be proposed to carry it
into effect, should be transmitted to the Board
of Trade at the earliest possible period.

I have, &c.,
H. LABOUCHERE.

Governor GORE BROWNE,
&c.,
&c.,
&c.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, June 24th, 1857.
THE attention of the respective Postmasters
throughout New Zealand is directed to
the following Despatches, with respect to the
first of which it is hereby notified that the fee
to be charged on all letters registered for
transmission to the United Kingdom will for
the present, be one shilling, a double fee being
charged in the case of letters sent through
Great Britain to any other Colony.

E. W. STAFFORD.

I have, therefore, to propose to you the fol-
lowing arrangements:---

1. That any Letter or Packet of printed
   papers sent from the United Kingdom to New
   Zealand, or from the Colony to the United
   Kingdom, may be registered at the wish of the
   sender, provided the entiré postage and the
   Registration fee be paid in advance.

2. That Letters, but only Letters, forwarded
   through the United Kingdom from New
   Zealand to any other British Colony, or to
   any foreign Country to which Letters can be
   paid to destination, may also be registered at
   the wish of the sender, under like conditions.

3. That the amount of the fee to be levied
   for Registration, shall be fixed by the Dis-
   patching Office; that is to say, that the British
   Post Office shall fix the amount of the fee for
   the Registration of Letters sent to New Zea-
   land, and that your Government shall be at
   liberty to fix the amount of the Fee for the
   Registration of Letters sent to the United
   Kingdom.

4. That the fee charged for the Registration
   of Letters sent from the United Kingdom to
   New Zealand or vice versa, shall be equally
   divided between the Imperial and the Local
   Post Office.

5. That in the case of Letters forwarded
   through the United Kingdom from New
   Zealand to another Colony, or from New
   Zealand to any foreign Country with which
   there is a provision for Registering Letters,
   two fees shall be collected from the sender of
   the Letters, one for the Registration as far as
   the United Kingdom, and the other for the
   Registration from the United Kingdom to the
   place of destination.

6. That upon this last class of Letters your
   Government shall account to the British Post
   Office for one-half of the fee levied for Regis-
   tration as far as the United Kingdom, and for
   the entire fee levied for the Registration from
   the United Kingdom to the place of destina-
   tion. For example, supposing a Registered
   Letter be sent from Sierra Leone to Nova
   Scotia, and the Government of Sierra Leone
   to have fixed sixpence as the amount of its fee
   for Registration, the Post Office of Sierra
   Leone would collect on the Letter referred to,
   over and above the postage,

For the Registration Fee to the
United Kingdom ...................... 0 6
For the Registration Fee from
the United Kingdom to Nova
Scotia ..................................... 0 6
Total.................................... 1 0

and would account to the British Post Office
for nine pence, that is, three pence for half the
Registration fee to the United Kingdom, and
six pence, the entire fee for the Registration
from the United Kingdom to Nova Scotia,
and, on sending the Letter to Nova Scotia, the
British Post Office would account to the Nova
Scotia Post Office for three pence, half the fee

Downing-street,
31st January, 1857.
SIR,-With the view of providing increased
security, during their transmission through the
Post, for Letters of importance, or Letters
containing valuable Enclosures, the Postmaster-
General is very desirous of affording to the
public the opportunity of registering Letters,
forwarded in the Mails between the United
Kingdom and all the British Colonies, with
which a regular exchange of Mails takes place.

In those Colonies, the Posts of which are
under the control of the British Post Office, the
privilege of registering Letters sent to the
United Kingdom has been enjoyed for some
time past, and Letters, professedly registered,
are constantly received from other Colonies.

But, as regards these last, Registration has not
yet been placed upon any proper footing.