73

General Post Office,...
19th November, 1856.

SIR,-In my letter of the 18th ultimo,
paragraph 7) referring to the arrangements
proposed to be adopted on the commencement
of the New Australian Packet Service for the
conveyance of letters between Australia and
India and other British Colonies short of the
United Kingdon, I stated that the Colonies and
this office, respectively, would retain the postage
on letters dispatched, and that neither office
would be entitled to make any charge on
delivery. I added that the British Packet rate
of postage on these letters had been reduced,
since the 1st January last, to four-pence the
half-ounce, and that it was presumed that this
reduced rate which would be charged by the
Agents of this department on letters sent to
New Zealand from India, Hong Kong, Ceylon,
Malta, &c., would be equally applied to letters
sent from New Zealand to those places.

The arrangement laid down in this paragraph
properly referred only to letters transmitted
between the Australian Colonies and those
Colonies the posts of which are under the con-
trol of the Postmaster General, viz., Hong
Kong, Malta, and Gibraltar, in which no inland
Colonial rates are at present chargeable; but,
through inadvertence, it was made applicable
also to letters transmitted to and from the East
Indies, Ceylon, and Mauritius, the posts of
which are under the management of the respec-
tive Colonial Governments, and in which an in-
land Colonial rate is levied over and above the
Packet rate of four-pence referred to.

I have now to inform you that in addition to
the British Packet rate of four-pence, such
letters are liable under the terms of the
Treasury warrant to any inland Colonial rates
that may be payable thereon, and that under
these circumstances your office will be at liberty
to charge upon letters addressed to, or received
from India and other British Colonies, the cor-
respondence of which does not pass through
the United Kingdom, not only the British
Packet rate, but also any inland Colonial rate
that may be payable on those letters.

I have, &c.,
F. HILL.

The Postmaster General,
Auckland, New Zealand.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, March 27th, 1857.

HIS Excellency the Governor has been
pleased to direct that the following en-
closure to a Despatch from Her Majesty's
Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies,
respecting the mode of dealing with unpaid,
or insufficiently prepaid letters to and from
Australia, should be published for general in-
formation.

By his Excellency's command,
E. W. STAFFORD.

To the Right Honorable the Lords Com-
missioners of Her Majesty's Treasury.
MY LORDS,—With reference to Mr. Arbuth-

not's letter of the 15th instant, informing me
in reply to the enquiry which I addressed to
your Lordships on the 3rd instant, that you
were of opinion that on every account as well
for the greater practicability of the arrange-
ment proposed to be made with the Australian
Colonies, as for the better despatch of business
it was desirable that a system of compulsory
prepayment of postage on either side should
be established when the new contract for the
service of the Australian Mails comes into
operation, and requesting me to take the ne-
cessary steps for giving effect to that rule, I
have the honor to state that I will lose no time
in communicating with the Australian Post
Officers on the subject, for the purpose of
arranging the details of this measure.

Upon the commencement of the new Mail
Service prepayment of Postage will be strictly
enforced in respect of all letters posted in the
United Kingdom addressed to Australia.

Numerous instances will, however, arise in
which the amount of postage paid in the
United Kingdom upon letters for Australia, as
well as in the Australian Colonies upon letters
for the United Kingdom, will be less than that
for which the letters are liable, and it will be
desirable to come to some arrangement with
the Colonies with regard to the treatment of
such letters.

The simplest mode that can be adopted will
be to treat such letters precisely as packets
sent under the regulations of the Colonial
Book Post, when insufficiently prepaid are
treated, that is to retain the letters and send
them to the Returned Letter Office if less than
a single rate of postage be prepaid, but in all
cases where at least a single rate of Postage
has been so prepaid to send the letters forward
charged with an amount of postage equal to the
deficiency together with an entire additional
British rate of sixpence as a fine. Such a re-
gulation need not involve the necessity for any
accounts, as each office may be allowed to
retain the amount collected upon insufficiently
paid letters sent to it for delivery; and in that
case I would recommend that each office should
in like manner retain hereafter the whole
amount collected upon the delivery of insuffi-
ciently paid books, so as to render the accounts
to which such packets now give rise no longer
necessary.

As the proposed course, however, will be at
variance with the agreement made with the
Australian Colonies on the establishment of
the sixpenny rate, it will be necessary that it
receive the assent of the several Colonial Go-
vernments before being adopted, and I would
suggest, therefore, that if my proposal meets
with your Lordships' concurrence you should
request Mr. Secretary Labouchere to commu-
nicate accordingly with the Governments con-
cerned.

I have, &c.,
(Signed) ARGYLE.

General Post Office,
23rd September, 1856.