✨ Petition on Postal Service
to be passed from Melbourne only, and
always thence direct to Auckland.
I am, &c,
R. Latter.
E. W. Stafford, Esq.,
Colonial Secretary,
Auckland.
To His Excellency Colonel Thomas Gore
Browne, Companion of the Most
Honorable Order of the Bath, Governor
and Commander-in-Chief in and
over Her Majesty’s Colony of New
Zealand, and Vice-Admiral of the
same, &c, &c.
The humble memorial of the undersigned,
Merchants, Traders, and Residents in
the Province of Canterbury, New Zealand,
Humbly sheweth,—
That your Memorialists respectfully
desire to lay before your Excellency the
injustice done to Canterbury by the ar-
rangement made by your Excellency’s
Government as to the delivery of Mails
at Auckland for the whole of New Zealand, under the new Steam Postal Ser-
vice.
Your Memorialists submit in the first
place, that by the abovementioned ar-
rangement their mails are made to un-
dergo a most circuitous route to Canter-
bury, and secondly from the very short
stay the steamer is to make in Auckland
that it will be quite impossible for your
memorialists or the residents in any
other of the Southern ports to reply to
their letters by the same steamer on her
return trip to Melbourne.
Your Memorialists would most respect-
fully have been disposed to submit to
your Excellency that Wellington, from
its more central position, would have
afforded Canterbury and all the other
Southern Settlements more facility in com-
munication, were it not that Auckland
would thus have been deprived of a direct
conveyance for her mails.
Your Memorialists would, under the
peculiar circumstances of the case, there-
fore venture to suggest for the purpose
of affording to all the New Zealand Set-
tlements some participation in the ad-
vantages intended to be granted to all
the Australasian and New Zealand Colo-
nies by the new Steam Postal Service,
that the Branch Service with New Zea-
land should consist of two steamers in-
stead of one as proposed; the one to
run to Auckland, Taranaki, and Nelson;
the other to Otago, Lyttelton, and Wel-
ington—the latter taking her departure
for Melbourne from Wellington.
Your Memorialists, in conclusion,
humbly but earnestly pray your Excellency that if the petition of your memo-
rialists cannot be granted, the mails for
Canterbury may be sent to Sydney as at
present, to be thence forwarded by the
first opportunity, instead of being sub-
jected to the lengthy and uncertain
route via Auckland.
And your Memorialists, as in duty
bound, will ever pray, &c.
[111 Signatures.]
Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Auckland, January 6th, 1857.
SIR,—I have the honor to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 17th ult.,
covering a Memorial from merchants and
residents in the Province of Canterbury,
relative to the Steam Postal Service pro-
posed to be established for New Zealand, and to forward for the information
of the Memorialists copies of correspondence on this subject, which will explain
the views of the Government of New
Zealand with respect to it.
I have, &c.,
(Signed) E. W. Stafford.
R. Latter, Esq., Lyttelton.
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Wellington Provincial Gazette 1857, No 4
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🏘️
Resolutions by Canterbury Provincial Council on Postal Service
(continued from previous page)
🏘️ Provincial & Local Government6 January 1857
Postal Service, Provincial Council, Resolutions, Canterbury
- R. Latter, Recipient of letter from Colonial Secretary
- E. W. Stafford (Esquire), Colonial Secretary
- E. W. Stafford, Colonial Secretary