348

THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

32. The Contractors shall have no claim to any postage, nor to any payment on account thereof,
    for mails carried under this contract, except as herein provided.

33. The Contractors shall provide suitable first-class accommodation for a mail officer or agent
    and one assistant on board each of the vessels employed under this contract, who shall be at liberty to
    use such accommodation as may be required for the performance of their duties; and such officer or
    agent and assistant shall be victualled by the Contractors, as chief cabin passengers, without charge
    either for their passages or victualling.

34. Every such mail officer or agent and assistant shall be recognized and treated by the Con-
    tractors, their officers and agents, as the agent of the Postmaster-General in charge of mails, and as
    having full authority in all cases to require a due and strict performance of this contract: Provided
    that no such agent, officer, or assistant shall have power to control or interfere with any commander or
    officer in the performance of his duty, and every such agent, officer, and assistant shall be subject to all
    general orders issued by the master or commander for the good order, health, and comfort of the
    passengers and crew, and the safety of the vessel.

35. If the Postmaster-General, or his officers or agents, shall at any time deem it requisite for the
    public service that any vessel should be detained beyond the appointed time of departure, it shall be
    lawful for the Postmaster-General, his officers or agents, to order such delay—not exceeding forty-eight
    hours at San Francisco, and not exceeding twenty-four hours at one port in New Zealand, and not
    exceeding twenty-four hours in Australia—by letter addressed to and delivered to the commander of
    the vessel, or the person acting as such, or left for him on board the vessel, four hours at least before
    the hour appointed for departure; and in order to ensure the due carrying of the mail from San
    Francisco, the Contractors without any such notice shall delay any vessel (if necessary) forty-eight
    hours, to await the arrival of the mail there from New York, and in every such case the number of
    hours during which such vessel shall be so detained shall be added to the contract time.

36. The Contractors shall have power to assign this contract to a Company intended to be
    established by them, for the purpose of taking over and carrying out the same; but this Contract, or
    any part thereof, shall not be otherwise assigned, underlet, or disposed of by the Contractors, or by the
    Company to whom the same may be assigned, without the consent in writing of the Postmaster-General
    first obtained for such purpose.

37. In case this contract is assigned, underlet, or disposed of, otherwise than in accordance with
    the provision hereinbefore contained, or in case of any wilfully gross or habitual breach of the same
    or any part thereof, or of any covenant, matter, or thing herein contained, committed by or on behalf
    of the Contractors, their agents or servants, and whether there be or be not any penalty or sum of
    money payable by the Contractors for any such breach, it shall be lawful for the Postmaster-General,
    if he shall think fit, and notwithstanding there may or may not have been any former breach of this
    contract, by writing under his hand, or under the hand of the Secretary of the Post Office in New
    Zealand, to determine this contract on giving three months' previous notice of his intention to do so
    to the Contractors, or their agents, and the Contractors shall not be entitled to any compensation in
    respect of such determination: Provided that on the Postmaster-General giving notice that he proposes to
    determine the contract, he shall offer to the Contractors the alternative of an arbitration upon the
    whole ground of complaint, one arbitrator to be chosen by each party, the arbitrators to choose an
    umpire, if necessary, and their award to be binding upon both parties.

38. During the continuance of this contract, and so long as the same shall be faithfully carried out
    by the Contractors, no charge for pilotage, lighthouse dues, harbour dues, or other dues, taxes, or
    imposts, shall be made at any port in New Zealand for any of the steam vessels employed in carrying
    out this contract; and the Government of New Zealand will use their best endeavours to obtain for the
    Contractors similar exemptions at the Port of Sydney, and, if necessary, at the Port of Melbourne and
    at New Caledonia.

39. If the Contractors shall refuse or wilfully neglect to commence the mail service provided by
    this contract, or, having commenced the same, shall refuse or wilfully neglect to carry on the same, they
    shall be liable to pay to the Postmaster-General, on behalf of the Government of New Zealand, the
    sum of twenty-five thousand pounds as liquidated damages.

40. The Contractors shall use their best endeavours to procure the mails carried under this con-
    tract to be taken to and from San Francisco and New York free from charge, under the Postal
    Convention between Great Britain and the United States; and so long as the freedom of charge shall
    not exist, the Postmaster-General shall deduct from the payments to be made to the Contractors, a
    sum at the rate of one thousand pounds per annum.

41. In order to encourage trade between the United States and the Australasian Colonies, the
    Contractors will use their best endeavours to obtain from the United States Government a concession
    that Phormium tenax fibre, the produce of New Zealand, and wool, the produce of New Zealand, and
    of any other of the colonies that may make arrangements with the Postmaster-General for the carriage
    of mails under this contract between San Francisco and Australia, shall be admitted duty free into
    the United States.

42. It shall be lawful for the Postmaster-General, by writing under his hand, at any time and
    from time to time to delegate any of the powers vested in him by virtue of this contract to such
    person or persons as he may think fit.

43. The Contractors may carry mails and mail matter between the United States and the
    Hawaiian Islands, or between those Islands and New Zealand, on such terms as they may see fit, and
    may receive such payment by way of postage or subsidy as may be agreed to be paid therefor, and for
    this special service the Contractors alone shall receive pay. But no mails shall be carried under this
    contract between the said Islands and New Zealand, which do not originate in, or whose final destina-
    tion shall not be, in said Islands.

44. The Contractors shall enter into a bond to the Postmaster-General, with two sufficient sureties
    to be approved of by him, in the penal sum of twenty-five thousand pounds, conditioned for the faithful
    performance of this contract.