317

6. Have you any, and what Bills of Health?

Answer.

7. Did the Cholera, or any other highly infectious and dangerous disease, prevail at the places from which you sailed, or at any of the places at which you have touched, or on board of any vessel with which you have had communication? If so, state when and where?

Answer.

8. In the course of your voyage, have any persons on board suffered from sickness of any kind, what was the nature of such sickness, and when did it prevail? How many persons were affected by it, and have any of them died in the course of the voyage?

Answer.

9. What number of Officers, Mariners, and Passengers have you on board?

Answer.

10. What was the whole number of persons on board your vessel when you sailed?

Answer.

11. What is the whole number of persons now ill on board your vessel?

Answer.

12. If there be no sickness now on board, when did the last attack of disease appear, and when did it entirely disappear?

Answer.

APPENDIX I.

EXTRACT FROM THE "NEW ZEALAND POST OFFICE ACT, 1858."

CLAUSE XXV. The Master of every vessel about to proceed from any port to any other port shall give at least twenty-four hours’ notice at the Post Office of such port of his intended departure, and if the vessel does not sail at the time appointed, shall also give timely notice of any alteration as to the period of her departure, so as to enable the Postmaster or other Post Officer to be prepared to dispatch mails on board such vessel, and if any such Master shall refuse, fail, or neglect to give such notice, he shall for every such offence forfeit and pay a penalty not exceeding £100: Provided always that the Governor in Council may from time to time exempt from the operation of this clause, vessels engaged in trading between particular places within the Colony, or any vessels belonging to or owned by aboriginal natives.

XXVI. The Master of every vessel about to proceed from any place within three miles from any Post Office to any other place within three miles from any Post Office within the Colony, shall give timely notice at such first mentioned Post Office of his intended departure, so as to enable the Postmaster to forward mails by such vessel, and if any Master shall refuse, fail, or neglect to give such notice, he shall for every such offence forfeit and pay a penalty not exceeding £100.

XXVII. The Post Officer at the Post Office at which any notice of intended departure shall be given under the 25th section of this Act, shall, on demand, give to the Master giving such notice, a certificate in writing of the day and hour when the same was given, and it shall be lawful for the proper Officer of Customs to refuse a clearance of the vessel in respect of which no such certificate shall be produced to him, or when it shall appear to him from such certificate that due notice as required by this Act has not been given at the Post Office.

XXVIII. Every Master or person in charge of any vessel about to sail from any place within the Colony, shall receive on board any mail which shall be tendered to him by any Post Officer, and shall if required give a written receipt for the same, and shall cause a description of such mail to be entered upon the Custom House manifest, and shall carefully deposit such mail in some secure and dry place on board such vessel, and shall convey the same upon the then intended voyage, and every such Master or person who shall offend against any of the provisions of this clause, shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding £100.

XXIX. All mail bags and all loose letters, except such as are described in Clause XVII of this Act, which at the time of the arrival of any vessel at any port or place within the Colony shall be on board such vessel directed to any person within the Colony, shall be delivered on demand to the Postmaster or other Post Officer at such port or place who is hereby authorised to give a receipt for the same; and any Master or other person belonging to any such vessel having charge of any such mail or letter, who shall refuse or neglect to deliver the same on demand as aforesaid, or shall detain or permit the detention of the same on board such vessel, or shall not use due diligence in the delivery thereof, as well as for the secure and dry custody of the same, while it shall be in his charge, shall forfeit and pay for every such offence a penalty not exceeding £100.

XXX. Any Master, passenger, or other person, who shall knowingly, or negligently, detain or delay on board such vessel, or keep in his possession any mail bag or any letter (liable to postage) after the Master shall have sent any of the letters brought by his vessel to the Post Office, shall forfeit and pay for every such mail bag and letter so delayed, detained, or kept, any sum not exceeding £10; and if after such demand made as aforesaid, shall forfeit and pay for every such mail bag and letter so delayed, detained, or kept, a penalty not exceeding £100.

XXXI. The Master of any vessel arriving at any port in the Colony, at which there is any Post Office, shall as soon as practicable thereafter, subscribe a declaration in the presence of the Postmaster or Post Officer at such port, or the town or place adjacent thereto, in the form