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liveries); for the detaining, opening, and return, or other disposal of irregularly posted, unclaimed, and refused letters, or such as from any cause whatsoever cannot be delivered or forwarded, and the contents thereof respectively; and for the publication of the lists of the same; and for the making, custody, and sale of postage labels; for the receiving and paying of money in connection with the said postal service, and for the conduct of post officers; and any such Rules and Regulations at any time in force to alter, vary, or revoke; and for the purpose of giving effect to the Rules and Regulations so to be made, further power is given to the Governor in Council, by the said Act, to impose any penalty not exceeding Ten Pounds for any one offence against such Rules and Regulations:

Now therefore His Excellency the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Executive Council of New Zealand, doth hereby revoke the present Post Office Regulation number Thirty-eight, and doth substitute the following in lieu thereof, and doth declare that the same shall be in force from and after the sixteenth day of August, 1864.

38. Any letter, newspaper, or packet requiring to be re-directed to any place within or without the Post Office district to which it is at first addressed, becomes liable to a fresh rate of New Zealand postage, which new rate shall be payable, upon delivery, by the person to whom such letter shall have been so re-directed.

This regulation shall not apply to letters addressed to the Officers and Men of Her Majesty’s Naval and Military Forces, or of the Militia or Volunteer Forces engaged in the field or on active service.

FORSTER GORING,
Clerk of the Executive Council.

Despatch notifying increase of Postage on Correspondence between Great Britain and New Zealand.

General Post Office,
Auckland, 3rd August, 1864.

THE following Despatch from Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, notifying an increase in the rate of Postage on Letters despatched from Great Britain to New Zealand, is published for general information.

No alteration is made in the postage on letters from New Zealand to Great Britain, which remains as formerly, viz.:

—6d. for ½ oz. via Southampton, and 10d. via Marseilles.

THOMAS B. GILLIES,
Postmaster-General.

Downing Street,
26th January, 1864.

Sir,—I have the honour to transmit to you a copy of a letter from the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, stating that on and after the 1st July next, the postage on letters despatched from this country to the Australian Colonies and New Zealand, via Southampton, will be raised to one shilling the half-ounce letter, and via Marseilles, to one shilling and fourpence, together with some other minor changes.

You will be good enough to lay this communication before your Responsible Advisers for their consideration, and also in order that these changes may become publicly known.

I have, &c.,

NEWCASTLE.

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

Treasury Chambers,
11th January, 1864.

Sir,—I am commanded by the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury to acquaint you that the Postmaster-General has called the attention of this Board to the question of raising the Postage on letters to the Australian Colonies and New Zealand, with a view to diminish the loss at present sustained in this service, and my Lords concur with his Lordship in opinion that steps should be taken for this purpose.

I am to observe that the increase from 6d. to 1s. the half-ounce, which took effect more than six months ago in the charge upon letters between this country and the West Indies, and the Cape of Good Hope, and Natal, these last Colonies like those in Australia, with a considerable emigrant population, has had a very satisfactory result.

The Cape service, which at the lower rate of Postage and the greater amount subsidy paid, was until then attended with great loss, is now self-supporting, whilst the loss sustained in the service to and from the West Indies has been greatly reduced, very little diminution of correspondence having followed the increase in the rate of Postage.