Provincial Secretary’s Office,
Wellington, 4th March, 1857.

HIS HONOR the Superintendent has directed the publication of the following Circular Despatch and Enclosures for general information.

William Fitzherbert,
Provincial Secretary.

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Auckland, January 6th, 1857.

Sir,—I do myself the honor to address you with reference to the mode by which the Steam Postal Service between Great Britain and the Australasian Colonies may be extended to the respective Provinces of this Colony with the greatest benefit to each.

2. On this subject the Government of New Zealand has received, as your Honor may be aware, Memorials from the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, from Residents in that Province, from Merchants and Residents in the Province of Canterbury, also Resolutions of the Canterbury Provincial Council, and letters from the Superintendents of Wellington and Canterbury, and Mr. Kelham, the latter objecting to arrangements stated to exist at present with respect to the transmission from Melbourne of English letters to Wellington.

3. These Memorials being numerously and influentially signed, may be assumed, together with the resolutions abovementioned, to represent the opinion on this question of a large section of the inhabitants of New Zealand, in so far as they were aware of the circumstances of the case; and as the question is one affecting the interests of the whole colony, the Government desires that all the facts connected with it should be placed before the Public, with a view to eliciting an expression of opinion in favour of the particular steam route which, all things considered, it may appear preferable to adopt.

4. With this object, copies of correspondence on this subject are herewith enclosed, with which, together with this letter, it is desired that the inhabitants of the Province of Wellington may be made acquainted, in whatever manner your Honor may deem most suitable for the purpose.

5. From these documents it will be perceived that the Government believes that the most efficient Steam Service, both Inter-Colonial and Inter-Provincial, would (having regard to the amount available for the purpose) be maintained by two powerful steamers plying between Australia and all the Provinces of New Zealand; thus providing that the Passengers and Mails, for any one Province would be conveyed, with the least possible delay, to their destination; and also affording a regular and rapid means of communication to and from all parts of this Colony and Australia.

6. The latter object would not be attained by the routes indicated by the Memorialists, inasmuch as these routes, although not otherwise objectionable, are not connected with each other, and a third steamer would consequently be required to complete the chain of inter-Provincial communication.

7. If a sufficient sum were available for subsidizing three steamers, the communication between the several ports of the Colony might thereby be increased; but such a service could not in all probability be maintained in the present circumstances of the colony. For it must not be forgotten that any bonus is only a portion, and generally a small one, of the whole sum necessary for the maintenance of Steamers; and that to divide the traffic between three Steamers—which would otherwise be enjoyed by two—would necessitate a proportionately increased bonus to compensate for the diminished receipts of each; unless indeed that traffic were very much augmented by the presence of the third vessel, a result which, with the present population of New Zealand, cannot be calculated upon as likely to occur to any appreciable extent.

8. It consequently appears essential to the proper consideration of this question, that it should be determined in what manner, with two vessels only, the whole service required can be performed with the greatest possible benefit to each portion of the Colony; bearing in mind that if the Inter-Provincial Service starts from any Port in the centre of the Colony, there must (in the absence of a third vessel) be a much longer time consumed in communicating with all the Ports to be visited, than if the service were commenced from one of the extremities of the route.

9. In addition to the routes respectively indicated by the Government and the Memorialists, another has been suggested by his Honor the Superintendent of Canterbury, by which it is proposed that two Steamers, of which one should call first at Otago, and the other at Manakau,