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encouraging the production of articles to be exhibited, of transmitting them to Dunedin, and of conducting communication between Exhibitors and the Commissioners: And we do by these presents ordain that this our Commission shall continue in full force and virtue, and that you our said Commissioners, or any three or more of you, shall and may from time to time, and at any place or places, proceed in the execution thereof, and of every matter and thing therein contained, although the same be not continued from time to time by adjournment:

In testimony whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent, and the seal of our said Colony to be hereunto affixed:

Witness our trusty and well-beloved Sir George Grey, Knight, Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over our Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same, at Government House at Auckland, in New Zealand aforesaid, the fifth day of September, in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in the Twenty-seventh year of our Reign.

G. Grey.

By His Excellency’s command,
Alfred Domett.

POSTAL.

Establishment of a Money Order Office at Tokomairiro.

General Post Office,
Auckland, 1st September, 1863.

His Excellency the Governor has been pleased to appoint the Post Office at Tokomairiro, in the Province of Otago, to be a Money Order Office for the issue and payment of Money Orders.

Reader Gilson Wood.

POSTAL.

Alteration in Rates of Postage via Marseilles.

General Post Office,
Auckland, 1st September, 1863.

The following Despatch respecting alteration in the rates of Postage via Marseilles is published for general information.

Reader Gilson Wood.

Downing-street,
27th May, 1863.

Sir,—I have the honor to transmit to you copy of a letter which has been received from the Postmaster-General respecting the inconvenience which has hitherto resulted from the operation of the rule under which the French portion of the postage, chargeable upon letters forwarded via Marseilles to India, China, and Australia, is collected by the quarter-ounce scale, while the remainder of the postage is chargeable according to the scale applicable to British Inland Letters.

You will learn that in consequence of the representation which has been made to him on the subject, the Director-General of the French Post Office has consented to a modification of this provision, and that from the 1st of June next, the rate of postage will be altered in accordance with the charges exhibited in the Table enclosed in the copy of the letter which is annexed.

You will therefore take the necessary steps to bring the new scale of charges into operation as regards letters sent to the United Kingdom, as soon as possible.

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

Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B., &c., &c., &c.

Mr. F. Hill to Sir F. Rogers.

General Post Office,
14th May, 1863.

Sir,—I am directed by the Postmaster-General to acquaint you, for the information of the Duke of Newcastle, that much inconvenience has long been felt from the operation of the rule under which the postage chargeable upon letters forwarded via Marseilles to India, China, Australia, &c., is collected by the quarter-ounce scale, while the remainder of the postage is chargeable according to the scale applicable to British Inland Letters.

This rule has been rendered necessary by an article of the postal convention with France, which provides that the foreign rate to be levied on each letter, and for each quarter of an ounce, that such letter may weigh in addition to the territorial rate referred to, shall not exceed the fourth part of the rate per ounce, or per thirty grammes, which is fixed by the preceding Articles 19, 20, and 21.

With some difficulty the Postmaster-General has at length induced the Director-General of the French Post Office