PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.
Reference :-
8855 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
59 P
No. 16.
TEXT of LETTER from the POST OFFICE to the TREASURY, dated 18th October 1880.
I have the honour to return the enclosed letter referred to me by your Lordships, in which the Colonial Office asks for a memorandum showing what would be the financial result to the Australian Colonies and Tasmania of joining the Postal Union.
I have the honour to inform your Lordships that according to an estimate made in this office i is calculated that the Colonies in question, which under the present system receive postage to the amount of 92,-1044, a year, would, under the Union system, receive only 38,7067. a year, being a loss of revenue to the extent of 53,6981. a year. This loss would be reduced to 23,6987. a year, if the estimated amount of the gain to this country, 30,0007. a year, were handed over to the Colonies as proposed in my letter of the 25th August last.
With reference to the question how Tasmania would be affected in regard to the sea conveyance of its correspondence to and from Melbourne, I presume that as the Colony of Victoria provides the sea service in this case, it would, as a matter of course, be entitled, under the Union regulations, to claim on the correspondence conveyed by its packets, a part of the sea rates allowed for the whole of the distance (viz., 15 francs per kilogramme for letters and postcards, and one franc per kilogramme for other articles), proportionate to the mileage traversed by its packets, but the settlement of all claims for sea transit as between the various Australasian Colonies, as well as the apportionment of the total estimated loss above referred to, would no doubt depend upon mutual arrange- ments between the Colonial Governments providing the packet services and the Colonies making use of such services.
No. 17.
TEXT of LETTER from the COLONIAL OFFICE to the TREASURY, dated 13th November 1880. I am directed by the Earl of Kimberley to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23rd October (18,077), enclosing a copy of a letter from the General Post Office respecting the financial result to the Australasian Colonies of joining the Postal Union, and I am to request that you will state to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, in reply to your letter of the 7th of September (15,481), that his Lordship concurs in the observations of the Postmaster-General contained in the sixth paragraph of his letter of the 25th of August, and will submit a proposal to the respective Governments of the Australasian Colonies to join the Union, if their Lordships are prepared to resign the estimated saving of 30,000l. a year in favour of those Colonics in the proportions suggested by the Postinaster-General, an arrangement which his Lordship thinks likely to have an important bearing upon the decision of the Colonial Government.
I am add that Lord Kimberley would propose to transinit a copy of the correspon- dence for the consideration of the Colonies concerned.
No. 18.
TEXT of LETTER from the TREASURY to the COLONIAL OFFICE, dated 29th November 1880. In reply to your letter of the 13th instant, respecting the proposed entry of the Australian Colonies into the Postal Union, I am directed by the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury to state that in the event of these Colonies joining the Union my Lords will not refuse to forego in their favour, during the term of the present contracts, the 30,000l. annual gain, which it is estimated will accrue to the Imperial Exchequer by the change, such sum to be divided among the Colonies in the proportion suggested by the Postmaster-General in his report of the 25th August last.
I am to add that my Lords see no objection to the several Colonial Governments being furnished with so much of the correspondence which has passed on this subject as is necessary to show the various results which will follow if the Colonies join the
Union.
59 4
No. 19.
TEXT of LETTER from COLONIAL OFFICE to the GOVERNORS of certain COLONIES, dated 20th December 1880.
(. ). to
Treasury,
I have the honour to transmit to you a copy of a letter from the Treasury, enclosing th Septem a copy of a correspondence between that Department and the General Post Office, with her 1880, and reference to the proposal to again being under the consideration of the respective closures. Governments of the Australasian Colonies the question of entering into the General Postal Union.
I have also the honour to enclose a copy of the correspondence noted 23rd Sep- in the margin, which has since taken place with regard to the financial effect to those tember. Colonies of their joining the Union under the arrangement proposed by the Postmaster- Treasury, General.
23rd Octo- ber.
Your Ministers will see by the letter from the Treasury, of the 29th November, that C.. to the Lords Commissioners will not refuse to forego, during the term of the present postal Treasury, contracts, in favour of the Colonies concerned, the 30,000/. annual gain which it is 13th Novem estimated would accrue to the Imperial Exchequer by the change, such sum to be ber. divided amongst the Colonies named, in the proportions suggested by the Postmuster- 29th Novem General in his report of the 25th of August.
I shall be glad to be favoured with the views of your Ministers on this subject at as early a period as may be convenient.
I also take this opportunity of transmitting to you a copy of a letter from the General Post Office, dated the 27th of September, enclosing a copy of a communication from Dr. Stephan, the Postmaster-General of Germany, urging that steps should be taken for bringing into the Postal Union the important British Colonies of Australasia and South Africa; and I have to add that a copy of this letter, and of its enclosure, has been communicated to the Governors of the South African Colonies, for the consideration of their respective Governments.
No. 20.
TEXT of LETTER from the POST OFFICE to the COLONIAL OFFICE, dated 6th November 1882. The Postmaster-General understands that there is every probability of the South African Colonies of the Cape and Natal applying for admission next year to the Postal Union, and that the calculations upon which the new contracts between those Colonies and the two companies conveying the mails between this country and South Africa have been framed, are based upon the tariffs of the Convention of Paris, at present regulating the affairs of the Union.
In these circunstances, Mr. Fawcett thinks it his duty to bring to the knowledge of the Earl of Kimberley an important proposal, which the German Post Office has announced its intention of making at the next Postal Union Congress, to take place at Lisbon in the spring of 1884.
This proposal is to reduce the rates payable by one country to another for the con- veyance of mails over a distance of more than 300 miles by sea,
15 francs a kilogramme for letters and postcards,
from
to<
and
1 franc a kilogramme for other articles,
5 francs a kilogramme for letters and postcards, and
50 centimes a kilogramme for other articles,
Treasury,
ber.
and, at the same time, to reduce from 25 to 10 centimes the surtax, which any country
of the Union can levy, over and above the fundamental Union rate of 25 centimes, on letters subject to the above-mentioned sea transit rate.
If this proposal were actually brought before the Lisbon Congress, there is little doubt that it would be carried, seeing that the large majority of the countries of the Postal Union have no interest in maintaining, but a strong interest in lowering, the present rates for sea transit; and the same majority, having obtained a reduced sea transit rate, would be in a position to lower their postage without loss; whereas this country and France, by whom in the main the sea service of the world is at present performed, would lose enormously on both sides of the reduction.
The Postmaster-General has therefore decided, so long as the heavy expense at present incurred by this country for the conveyance of mails by sea continues, to oppose to the
K 2
་་་