AG
Com
276
Reciting tender for the supply of steam vessels for the Mail
service between Great Britain and Australia.
Reciting the accept- ance of the Tender, and the performance of the services by the Company.
Articles of Agreement made the 16th day of April, in the year of our Lord 1861, between the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, of the one part, and the Right Honourable Edward John Lord Stanley of Alderley, Her Majesty's Postmaster-General for the time being, of the other part.
Whereas the said Company in the month of October 1858 sent to the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland a Tender in writing, dated the 5th day of that month, for the supply of steam-vessels for performing the Mail Service between Great Britain and Australia: And whereas the terms or conditions of such Tender were subsequently some respects altered, and in others modified with the mutual consent of the said Company and the said Commissioners: And whereas such Tender (with such alterations and modifica- tions as herein-before referred to) was approved by Mr. Arthur Anderson on the part of the said Company on the 9th day of the same month of October, and was, as approved by the said Company, accepted by the said Commissioners on the 13th day of the same month, and the draft of a Contract was sub- sequently prepared by the Solicitor of the Admiralty on the footing of such tender when so altered or modified as aforesaid, and although no Contract in writing has at present been executed in respect of such services, yet the same, as thereby agreed to be performed, have been performed by the said Company from the 12th day of February 1859 up to the 30th of June last past: And whereas the said Company having dis- covered that the services so agreed to be performed, and so performed by them as aforesaid, were not only not remune- services agreed to be rative, but attended with great loss, did address, on the 30th day of April 1860, a letter to the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, stating, in reply to enquiries contained in a letter from the said Lords Commissioners, dated the 27th of the same month of April, that the Company would be compelled to abandon the further execution of the said service, but that as an alternative to the total relinquishment of the service, and in order to avoid the inconvenience of a suspension of Mail communication with Australia, they were willing to continue it under the modified arrangements, and for the reduced subsidy herein-after stated, which alternative proposal the Lords Com- missioners of Her Majesty's Treasury were pleased to accept, and to authorize the said Postmaster-General, to whom all securities entered into with the Commissioners of the Admiralty in relation to the packet service had been transferred under or by virtue of an Act of Parliament made and passed in the last session of Parliament, to take the necessary steps in conjunction
Reciting that the
performed were attended with great
oss; but the Company
were willing to con- tinue the same under
the modified arrange
ments, and for a reduced subsidy.
2100.