CO885-5 — Page 233

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TEL

C.O.

8855 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

Colonial packet

contracts of Australasin and South Africa.

Cape Colony eschews

the Union. Australia reluctant.

59 c

16. At the time when the entry of British Colonies into the Union became active, the Australasian and South African Governments had made packet contracts involving them in considerable expense; and their entry would have increased that expense by reducing the amount payable to them for the sea conveyance of foreign mails over their lines.

17. As early as 1877 the question was seriously considered by the Cape of Good Hope, but the Colonial Government did not think it prudent to incur the expense, and up to 1878 the Governments of the Australasian Colonies evinced generally the same reluctance. Nevertheless the Postmasters-General of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia were earnest at an early date in mastering the situation in all its details, and ascertaining definitely how adhesion to the Union would affect Colonial interests.

Colonial 18. At the time when this question arose, as indicated above, the Imperial Government packet was no longer maintaining the packet service all the way to and from Australia; but the enterprises. Colonies supported a contract line between Australia and Ceylon, which formed at that Imperial aid. Island a junction with the Imperial line to and from the East,

enterprise, the Home Government undertook to carry the mails for and from Australasia To encourage this over the Imperial contract lines free of charge to the Colonies, and to pay for the transit through France and Italy of the outward mails sent via Brindisi, besides according to the Colonies an advantageous division of the postage collections. This principle is still in force, and there are now five lines to which it applies, the Victorian line between Colombo and Melbourne, the Quecusland line between Brisbane and Aden via Torres Straits, the New South Wales line between Sydney and Suez, the New South Wales and New Zealand line between Sydney and San Francisco, and the direct New Zealand line to and from Plymouth.

Imperial

expense involved in

entry of Australia,

Inter- Colonial relatious.

Australian Postal Conference suggested.

Estimated financial results.

Imperial

Government offers a concession.

19. When the Australian Colonies were first invited to join the Union they were told that, in the event of their doing so, a large additional expense would be incurred by the Imperial Government, and that the division of the cost of the packet service between the mother country and the Colonies would have to be re-considered; but, as soon as the scheme took a really serious shape, the question arose whether the arrange- ments then existing in regard to the incidence of the loss on the service need really be disturbed during the currency of the packet contracts in force at the time.

20. But, besides their relations with the mother country and with the several foreign countries belonging to the Union, the Australian Colonies had to consider their relations to each other, and the bearings on these of the question of entering the Union or not. It was obviously undesirable for one or two of them to enter without the whole group doing so; and, as the packet services are not provided by the whole group, it was considered necessary that those Colonies providing the services should protect themselves against the further loss they might sustain through the use of those services by other Colonies on the very moderate terms settled by the Union Convention, instead of the terms which, while outside the Union, the packet-supporting Colonies are able to dictate to the others. On this ground it was suggested as early as 1876, by the Postmaster- General of South Australia, that a conference between the several colonies should be held, with the view of discussing the whole question in 'all its bearings, but no such conference was held until 1883.

21. Meanwhile when the matter was re-opened by the Imperial Post Office in 1880, it was calculated that the entry of the Australian Colonies into the Union on the terms provided by the Convention would put the British Post Office in a position to save some 30,000l. a year, by the supersession of the special apportionment of postage under which an advantage was accorded to the Colonies, and by the adoption of the Union payment for sea conveyance. The Treasury consented to waive the claim to that saving during the operation of the existing packet contracts, and to share the sum, pro rată, among the Colonies providing packets, if they elected to join the Union.

22. At this time (1820) the contribution made by the Imperial Post Office towards the expenses of the Colonies for packet services amounted to about 52,000/. a year; and, besides being prepared to relinquish the saving natural to the entry of the Colonies into the Union, the Imperial Treasury stood to lose through the reduction of postage a sum estimated at over 23,000l. a year.

23. When the fresh proposal was brought before the Colonies it was calculated that the reduction of postage in Australasia would represent a loss of about 53,000/. a year, reducible, however, at first to about 23,000/. by the Imperial relinquishment of the 30,0001. referred to above.

59 d

24. On the arrival of the proposal in Australia the Victorian Government entered into communication with the other Colonial Governments with the view of coming to un understanding preliminary to entering the Union.

Postal Con-

A fresh

obstacle: Proposed

25. The Sydney Postal Conference, at which this understanding was at length reached, Sydney did not take place until 1883; and in the meantime another obstacle had presented rence of itself to the entry of the Australasian Colonies into the nion. The German Post 1983. Office had given netice that, at the next "nion Congress (fixed for 1834), a proposal would be made for the reduction of the very moderate rates payable under the treaty for sea conveyance, and of the rates of postage allowed to be charged to the public. It was obvious that the sea-carrying countries, a small minority, stood in great danger of this reduction of proposal being carried; and hence arose the suggestion that, if the Australasian son-transit Colonies decided to apply for admission to the Union, they should exact a guarantee rates. that no such reduction should take place, at all events until after the next quinquennial Congress to that of Lisbon. It was further suggested that, for the protection of their interests in the future, they should demand a vote for each Colony in the affairs and deliberations of the Union.

26. Those suggestions applied equally to the South African Colonies, which still had under review the question of entering the Union.

27. The deliberations of the Sydney Conference resulted in a recommendation from Five the delegates of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania, that the Australian Australian Colonies should apply for admission to the Union under the special conditions Colonies and referred to above; and application was accordingly made in 1883 on behalf not only of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania, but admission to

apply for also of the Cape Colony, which had come to the same conclusion in the meantime. the Union.

the Cape

28. The Queensland delegate at the Sydney Conference had dissented from his Queensland colleagues as to the terms of the understanding necessary as a preliminary between the dissentient. Colonies subsidising packet lines and the Colonics merely using lines subsidised by others; and Queensland did not apply for admission to the Union; but reasonable hopes were entertained that the Government of that Colony would do so if the rest of the Colonies were admitted. It was also hoped that New Zealand would apply; but the separate geographical position of that important Colony rendered its abstinence less vital than that of any one of the Colonies on the mainland. Had the application for Application admission to the Union been unconditional, it could not, under the Paris Convention, conditional. have been refused; but, as it was accompanied by conditions, it became necessary for

the whole of the Powers composing the Union to be consulted. The result was that, Conditions while many countries were wholly favourable to the entry of the Colonies even so demurred to: conditioned, there were some that objected to one of the conditions, and some that Application objected to the other. Such being the case, it was decided that the whole question Lisbon

relegated to should be reserved for discussion in the full Congress which was about to be held at Congress. Lisbon.

29. In consequence of the outbreak of cholera in 1984, and the difficulties of travelling, Postpone- owing to the quarantine regulations, the Lisbon Congress was postponed, and did not ment of assemble till February 1885.

Congress.

30. Invitations were sent from Lisbon to the several Colonies of Australasia and South Colonial Africa to send representatives to the Congress. All the Colonies did not do so; but representa- Victoria was represented by Mr. Cameron Corbet, Queensland by Mr. (now Sir James) tives invited. Garrick and Mr. Hemmant, and New South Wales and South and Western Australia by Mr. Buxton Forman, one of the British delegates.

tralin al

31. The representatives of the various States forming the Union showed a very Desire of marked desire for the two important groups of British Colonies to enter, and were Union States prepared to make concessions. The first point stipulated by the Colonies, the main- that Aus- tenance of the status quô in regard to sea rates and postage till after the next Congress, South Africa was settled without difficulty, for, contrary to expectation, the British delegates should enter. succeeded in inducing those of Germany to withdraw the somewhat unreasonable demand which had been preferred. But on the question of votes there was strong opposition to the demand of the Colonies.

32. Great Britain had herself preferred a demand for a more adequate representation Question of of the Empire than at present exists. important or unimportant, has one voice, and one only, at the congresses and in those

The theory of the Union is that every State, voting. matters of detail which are settled by vote in the intervals between the congresses. Great Britain has one vote, and Servia, equally, has one; but when the representation of British and other Colonics was settled in 1878, it was arranged that British India should have a separate vote, while the Colonies of Great Britain, France, Spain, Holland, and

II 4

1