PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
BE REPRODUCED
PHOTOGRAPHIC-
C.O. 885/5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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at the British Post Office not being alive to this elementary business precaution. It is like a man engaging to build a house on a particular site before he has obtained the land.
As for the projected contracts, they appear to be even more unjust to Australia than the existing ones. The arrangement. I understand, is that England shall pay the whole of the charges outward, and Australia the whole of the charges Homeward, each country keeping its own postage. Though at first sight this seems more favour- able to Australia than the old system. it really gives an enormous advantage to England. In the first place, it will be remembered that England shall have the postage on five letters as against every four for which the postage is collected by Australia. In the second place, double the number of newspapers are sent from England to those sent from Australia, as well as the whole of the book-packets, and three to one of the small parcels. Will the Colonies agree to a bargain which saddles them with a half of the expenditure and gives England considerably more than half the revenue? my opinion, these conditions ought rather to be reversed, or at least a joint purse In arrangement arrived at in regard not only to the expenditure but also the income. Take the case another way. I am officially informed that the present receipts of the British Post Office from the postages to Australia are 116,0007. a year. new arrangement England will pay-
Under the
To the P. and O. and Orient Companies (for outward passage) To the French and Italian Railway Companies (ditto)
£
85,000
25,000
110,000
showing a clear balance of 6,000/. to the Government. This is, of course, calculated on the assumption that we get no reduction whatever in the transcontinental service.
I further understand that all the mails are to be taken on to Port Said. Nothing could be more ridiculous, considering that the great steamers which leave England for Australia every Saturday call at Naples on the following Fridays, and that three lays later another vessel is to follow in their wake from the Italian terminus carrying the mails to Port Said, an arrangement which involves two transhipments, to say nothing of the annoyance and risk of the delay in waiting for them at the Egyptian port. My view is that the steamers, in place of leaving London on Thursday and Plymouth on Saturday, should leave the latter port on Monday, taking the long sea service mails, and calling at Naples for the merchants' and other letters which would have left London on Friday. This would simply be a return to the old plan of cheap mails via Southampton, and more costly via the Continent.
III.
I divide correspondence into two classes, one which demands, and is ready to pay for, the highest speed and the utmost regularity; and one which is content with a some- what lower speed if thereby it can be conveyed more cheaply. That these two classes, strongly marked and distinct, exist in our Colonial correspondence does not need to be proved. For convenience we may call the first "business correspondence," and the second "social." The business letters, charged at whatever rate may be necessary, can still
go overland to Brindisi or Naples. By getting the transcontinental service performed at a fair price (say, d. per lettor), and by taking advantage of great steamship competition, a considerable reduction might be made even in the rate for business letters. Then let the social letters at the penny rate be sent all the way by sea in the splendid steamers of the Orient and P. & O. and other companies, which would pick up the business letters that would follow them to Naples or Brindisi overland. That is one way in which penny postage may be introduced. offer to the British Post Office to carry mails between England and Australia entirely I have myself made a definite by sea at the penny rate in the finest ships now built, so that I can answer for its practicability. My offer was, however, refused, on the ground that it was inadmissible both under the existing contracts and under those for which tenders were then being called.
Let the new contracts contain a clause enabling a penny rate for letters conveyed entirely by sea to be instituted, and then, at least, the door will be kept open.
out such a clause, we shall be shut out for many years.
To sum up, my suggestions to the Conference are the following:-
With-
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1. There should be two classes of correspondence, say, a first class and a second class. The first class should go by the fastest service, and be rated accordingly. The second class should go entirely by sea at 1. per oz. letter.
2. An effort should at once be made to obtain a great reduction in the transcon- tinental charges, so as to decrease the postage even on the first class of letters,
3. The contracts both for the entirely by sea service, and the service via Brindisi or
Naples, should be thrown open to the freest and fullest competition.
4. In order to give time for these new arrangements, the now expiring contracts
should be extended for one year.
Whatever official criticisms have been passed upon my proposals, more especially in the Postmaster-General's letter of the 17th March last, are fully and fairly replied to in the accompanying letter which I addressed to Mr. Raikes on the 22nd March, and which has not yet been included in the Parliamentary papers on the subject.
I have laboured long and unremittingly, in the face of the greatest difficulties, to prove that these suggestions are practicable. proved the injustice, the anomalies, and the extravagance which characterise our present have gone into the minutest details, and system. In the movement I have carried on I have been supported by a unanimous public opinion both in England and the Colonies; and I now lay the question before the Conference in the belief that it will rise to the great opportunity afforded it of doing more, by one simple act, to cement the social and political bonds of the empire than the most farseeing of us can possibly conceivo. It is an act, moreover, to which an auspicious occasion gives a higher wisdom and an added grace.
April 1887.
No. 28.
AUSTRALIAN MAILS.
MEMORANDUM for the information of Sin ALEXANDER Campbell and MR. SANDFORD FLEMING, Canadian Delegates, and circulated by them.
It is suggested that the subsidy which the Canadian Pacific Railway deem
to warrant their establishing the line, should be divided between :-
1. Imperial Government.
7. Admiralty-from “ Armed Cruiser Fund."
necessary
b. Post Office-in proportion to amount now paid for monthly Pacific service.
2. New Zealand.
3. Australia.
4. Canada.
It is thought that under this arrangement their service will be secured at a positive saving upon existing mail contracts to the Imperial Government, New Zealand, and Australia. IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT—
a. Armed Cruiser Fund. .-The five vessels would, on account of their speed and construction, be entitled to the same arrangement which exists with the Cunard and White Star Companies.
b. Post Office. -The cost of conveying the New Zealand and Australian Mails between London and San Francisco, for the present monthly American service, amounted, it is understood, in the year 1885-6 to 16,609/ It is proposed to include
in the scheme now suggested a fortnightly delivery of the mails at Fiji. NEW ZEALAND-
In 1885 the cost to New Zealand of the Pacific monthly service was stated by the Postmaster-General of the Colony to be as follows:-
Subsidy
Bonus to contractors Light dues
£
4. the 29,798 0 4 3,030 6 8 663 0 0
6,796 8
40,287 15. I
P 3
Interprovincial agents, &c.
Total