AUSTRALIAN
MAILS.
505
AUSTRALIAN MAILS.
128
Sir George Turner.] We send all our mails overland on Tuesday. This arrangement may possibly have to make us close our mails earlier.
Sir Hugh Nelson.] You will send them on Wednesday now.
Sir John Bramston.] You will get a day longer if I mistake not.
Sir John Forrest.] Should the mail steamers call at Fremantle this arrangement will throw the whole of the Western Australia into Sunday working.
That Sir Hugh Nelson.] The same thing would apply to Queensland. would mean that the whole of our letters would be written on Sunday, as the mail would have to leave very early on the Monday morning.
Sir John Forrest.] We know what your people agreed to: They all agreed to Saturday.
Sir Hugh Nelson.] Yes, but we get a day longer this way.
Sir John Forrest.] Your representative said Saturday in the conference that took place. If steamers cail at Fremantle, it will throw all the mails of Western Australia into Sunday; the ship will get there on Sunday.
Sir Hugh Nelson.] They could hardly be at Albany and Fremantle on the same day.
Sir John Forrest.] Yes, I think they would.
Mr. Roche.] It is seven hours, is it not, from Fremantle to Albany?
Sir John Forrest.] Not seven hours. She reaches on Thursday at what hour-Thursday at one o'clock.
Sir Hugh Nelson.] I suppose sometime about two o'clock.
Sir John Forrest.] One or two o'clock.
Sir Hugh Nelson.] She would leave on Saturday or Sunday.
Sir John Forrest.] She would get there in the evening sometime or Monday morning. It would be Monday morning. All the mails would have to be made up on Sunday.
Sir Hugh Nelson.] That is the position in Queensland at the present time. Sir John Forrest.] But you bave two other ways of getting yours. have two other services.
You
The Secretary of State.] It is suggested that if Adelaide were made Saturday Brisbane would become Sunday.
Mr. Roche.] Yes.
The Secretary of State.] That would throw much greater inconvenience upon a much larger number.
Mr. Roche.] Yes.
Sir Hugh Nelson.] It would involve an extra train from Brisbane to Sydney.
I do not know whether Mr. Reid would run it for us.
The Secretary of State.] Then I think we must come to a decision.
Mr. C. C. Kingston.] I should like to ask Mr. Chamberlain what difference it would make as regards the stay of the boats in Adelaide under the various schemes?
Mr. Roche.] I do not think it would make any difference. The time of departure would be the same for Adelaide. It is a question of the day now.
Mr. Kingston.] The stay of the boats.
Mr. Roche.] Oh, the stay?
Mr. Kingston.] The stay of the boats.
Mr. Roche.] I do not know.
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The Secretary of State.] Would the boats stay as long in Adelaide under the new circumstances?
Mr. Roche.]
fancy they would. Mr. Kingston.] Are you sure?
Sir George Turner.] No, the steamer cannot, because it leaves Melbourne on Saturday now. A steamer leaves Melbourne on Saturday now and leaves Adelaide on the following Wednesday. We send our mails overland by the Tuesday express now.
Under the new arrangement, as I take it, the steamer is going to leave Melbourne on the Wednesday and leave Adelaide on the Thursday.
Mr. Kingston.] see that makes a considerable difference.
Sir George Turner.] That is how it goes. We will not send our mails overland at all. They will be sent on by steamer.
Mr. Roche.] You will send them on by sea.
Sir George Turner.] Under the new arrangement we will send them by sea, evidently.
Mr. Roche.] That will be better for you. Would you not like that better.
Does it signify? It does not matter as regards this question now.
Sir George Turner.] Except that the officials who understand the practical working of the matter urged time after time that the mails should leave Adelaide on the Saturday, and they ought to know what they are talking about. I am rather in the dark as to that. Our Postmaster-General says we should continue to urge on the English Government that Saturday is the best day for Australia, and failing that, either Wednesday or Friday.
The Secretary of State.] I do not know; that matter does not seem to have come under my special notice; it may have been forwarded, I do not know.
Mr. Roche.] Then comes India.
Sir George Turner.] The only way is for you to do it against us.
The Secretary of State.] I will just take the feeling of those present. Mr. Reid?
Mr. Reid.] I am agreeable for the change.
Sir Hugh Nelson.] This time table, leaving Brisbane on Monday, would suit us.
Sir Edward Braddon.] Monday.
Sir George Turner.] I will stand by the decision of our own officers that Saturday should be the day.
Mr. Kingston.] I prefer it as at present, but otherwise I will adhere to the Australian arrangement.
Sir John Forrest.] I agree to what has been agreed to half a dozen times by the Australian Conventions.
The Secretary of State.] That is to say you stick to the Saturday: Sir John Forrest.] Yes.
The Secretary of State.] You are in a minority, Sir John.
Sir John Forrest.] It does not matter. The time will come when I may be
in a majority.
The Secretary of State.] We have all been in minorities at times. I think that is all, Mr. Roche.
Sir Henry Waterfi ld, Sir James Mackay, and Mr. Roche retired.
ALIEN IMMIGRATION.
The Secretary of State.] Then the next question is the question of Alien Immigration.
E 97837.
R
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TTILLC.O. 885
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
ALIEN IMMIGRATION.
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