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[From the New Zealand Gazette, Dec. 30, 1862.]

POSTAL.

Contract for Mail Steamer between Melbourne and Dunedin.

General Post Office,
Auckland, 30th December, 1862.

THE following Articles of Agreement with Messrs. M’Meckan and Blackwood, for conveyance of Mails between Melbourne and Port Chalmers are published for general information.

Reader Wood,
For the Postmaster-General.

ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT

made the Twenty-fifth day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two Between James M’Meckan and John Hutchison Blackwood both of the City of Melbourne in the Colony of Victoria Merchants of the one part and the Honourable Crosbie Ward of Auckland in the Colony of New Zealand as Her Majesty’s Postmaster-General for the Colony of New Zealand aforesaid and for and on behalf of the said last mentioned Colony of the other part:

Witnesseth that the said James M’Meckan and John Hutchison Blackwood in consideration of the payments hereinafter agreed to be made to them do hereby for themselves their heirs executors and administrators and each of them doth hereby for himself his heirs executors and administrators covenant with the said Crosbie Ward and with his successors in the said office of Postmaster-General.

1. That they the said James M’Meckan and John Hutchison Blackwood shall and will at their own costs and charges at all times until this agreement shall be determined and to the satisfaction of the Postmaster-General for the time being of New Zealand aforesaid convey Her Majesty’s Mails between Melbourne and the Ports of the Bluff Harbour and Port Chalmers in New Zealand aforesaid during the time of twelve calendar months commencing from the term at which the steam-vessel “Aldinga” or some other vessel may be sent from Melbourne on the said service in January next according to the agreement hereinafter contained and also from and after the determination of the said term of twelve calendar months until the expiration of six calendar months from the time at which the said James M’Meckan and John Hutchison Blackwood or the survivor of them their or his executors administrators or assigns or the Postmaster-General for the time being of New Zealand shall have given unto the other of the said parties hereto notice in writing of a desire or intention to determine this contract and the service thereunder.

2. That the steam-ship “Aldinga” now employed in trading between Melbourne and Otago aforesaid or a steam-ship fit in all respects for the service hereby contracted for shall be the steam-ship employed to convey the said Mails and that the ship to be employed for that purpose shall every calendar month leave Melbourne on her voyage to Otago within twenty-four hours after the arrival in Hobson’s Bay of the steamer carrying the Monthly Mails between Point de Galle and Melbourne. Provided always that the said “Aldinga” or such other ship as may be employed under this contract shall not in any case be required or compelled to remain at Melbourne after ten o’clock in the forenoon of the eleventh day of any month except February and not after the ninth day of any month of February although the said steamer carrying the Monthly Mails may not have arrived at Melbourne aforesaid. Provided further that in case any such day of departure falls on a Sunday the time for such departure may be extended to the ensuing Monday at ten o’clock in the forenoon.

3. That the “Aldinga” or such other ship as aforesaid shall punctually on the eighteenth day of every calendar month during the continuance of this contract at three o’clock in the afternoon leave Port Chalmers on her voyage to Melbourne but in case the “Aldinga” or such other ship shall in any month have been detained at Melbourne in manner mentioned in the preceding clause of this contract then her departure may on the voyage from Port Chalmers succeeding such detention be delayed by James M’Meckan and John Hutchison Blackwood for a time corresponding with the period for which she may have been so detained at Melbourne as aforesaid. Provided always that she shall in no case depart from Port Chalmers later than three o’clock in the afternoon of the nineteenth day of each month.

4. That in every month of February...