able power—can call at any other port in New Zealand. The effect of this will be, that another vessel must be employed to convey the mails to the other Provinces, in scarcely one of which will merchants be enabled to reply to their letters earlier than by the second monthly mail after that by which those letters had been brought to Melbourne; so that, instead of being benefitted by the mail service, the Southern Settlements of New Zealand would be in a worse position than they are at present, the mails being now brought from Sydney by the regular trading vessels to their several ports.

Your Memorialists are far from wishing to deprive Auckland of the advantage of having its own mails conveyed direct to that port, but at the same time, your Memorialists respectfully ask that the Southern Provinces may be put on a similar footing, which they believe may be effected if the branch service be performed by two steamers instead of one,—the one visiting Auckland, from whence the mails might be conveyed to New Plymouth, and perhaps to Nelson; and the other visiting Otago, Lyttelton, and Wellington, calling at Otago first, and taking her final departure from Wellington,—unless it should be found practicable to include Nelson.

Your memorialists further venture to submit that by treating the branch service as one—although performed by two vessels, an equitable adjustment of the proportion payable by the Lords of Her Majesty’s Treasury might be made, so as not to burden the English Government unduly, and yet at the same time, to give the Southern Provinces of New Zealand their fair share of the advantages intended to be conferred by the new postal arrangements.

And your Memorialists as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c.

(Signed) JAMES KELHAM, Chairman
(Signed) JOHN JOHNSTON, Deputy-Chairman.

Superintendent’s Office Wellington.
24th November, 1856.

SIR,—

I have been requested by the Chamber of Commerce of this place to support the Memorial which they forward by the present mail against the proposed arrangement for the conveyance of the English Mails from Australia to New Zealand.

The inadequacy of the arrangements in question, the grave inconvenience and injustice which will be inflicted by them, not only on this, but on all the Southern Provinces, are so clearly explained by the memorialists that it is needless for me to do more than to express my entire concurrence in their protest.

If His Excellency’s Government persists in making the steamers run to Auckland, simply because, as the Superintendent of Canterbury remarks in a postscript to his recent pamphlet “it has chosen to set itself down in a remote corner of the islands,” I earnestly trust it will not so unnecessarily sacrifice the interests of this Province, as to insist upon its mails being conveyed to Auckland, but that, on the contrary, His Excellency’s Government will give instructions that the Wellington mails shall be forwarded direct, as at present, by the sailing vessels, which ensure almost a weekly communication between Wellington and Australia.

I have, &c.,

I. E. FEATHERSTON,
Superintendent.

The Honorable
The Colonial Secretary,
Auckland.

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Auckland, 4th December, 1856.

SIR,—

I am directed by the Colonial Secretary to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 24th ult., covering two memorials to the Governor relative to the contemplated postal arrangements, and to inform you that the same has been laid before His Excellency.

I have at the same time to express the regret of His Excellency’s Government that, owing to the early departure of the “Zingari” it has been impossible, from the variety of subjects requiring consideration, to afford by this mail such explanations as would, it is believed, remove some misconception on the part of the Memorialists of the views of the Government on this subject, with respect to which a further communication will be made by the first opportunity.

I have, &c.,

W. GISBORNE,
Under Secretary.

J. Kelham, Esq., J. P.
Wellington.

Wellington Chamber of Commerce,
16th December, 1856.

SIR,—

I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 4th inst., ack-