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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O

Reference :-

8855 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

Friday morning to be posted there for India, China, and the East generally, thereby saving 100 per cent., the difference between 24/, and 5d.

Here, then, by regulating and assimilating your charges, you have a new source of income, and if England, as the mother, takes the lead in these great reforms, her children will unquestionably follow her. For my part, 1 have done my best to answer you upon the three questions to which you reduce the discussion on Imperial penny postage. Is it wanted? is it practicable? will it be self-supporting? and I must leave the decision to the public.

House of Commons,

March 22, 1887.

I have, &c. (Signed)

J. HENNIKER HEATON.

Note added by Mr. Heaton.—The total revenue is 200,000l. a year. Printed matter, books, newspapers, circulars, &c., on which at present I do not ask any reduction, give Australia and England just half this revenue, 100,000l. a year, and only a reduction to ld. is asked for on letters which go wholly by sea.

No. 27.

IMPERIAL PENNY POSTAGE.

STATEMENT BY MR. HENNIKER HEATON, M.P.

I.

The opportunity afforded me of setting before the Conference the considerations which so strongly urge a substantial reduction of the rates of postage throughout the British Empire is one of which I gladly avail myself. Those considerations appear in detail in the correspondence laid before the Conference, and to some extent, there- fore, this statement will be in the nature of a recapitulation; but there are still other considerations to which I shall draw attention, and, moreover, I shall here invite the Conference to take a broad and comprehensive survey of the situation, having regard to the fact that this is not only a British nor even merely a Colonial, but a truly Imperial question. The British Post Office, the oldest in the world, a growth rather than a creation, is perhaps apt to take narrow and departmental views of postal matters, while it is undoubtedly hampered by the vicious arrangement whereby it has become the milch cow of successive Chancellors of the Exchequer; and, on the other hand, Colonial post offices find the greatest possible support and assistance from the experience and traditions of the parent department. For the first time they have now been brought into actual co-operation, and the result hoped for is an enlargement of our postal ideas in accordance with the vastness of the empire, a clear determination to work in harmony for the attainment of a common end, and a more equal distribution alike of the burdens and the advantages of the Imperial postal system. I do not look for Imperial penny postage at a bound. An innovation of that enormous character is inevitably met, at the very outset, with hindrances arising from existing contracts and vested interests. All that I have ever demanded may be summed up in two points, first, an inquiry into the present system, as to which there is the greatest possible difficulty in getting at the facts; second, avoidance of new contracts extending over many years, and definitively closing the door of reform. With regard to the inquiry, I have a notice of motion on the paper of the House of Commons for a Select Committee. The result of such inquiry and such abstention from new contracts will be, I believe, the early establishment of an Imperial penny post; but I beg the Conference clearly to distinguish between a demand for its immediate establishment, and a demand for certain measures which, by safe and gradual steps, will lead to it. The former would be unreasonable and premature; the latter is, I submit, irresistible, except by the arbitrary exercise of power.

Confining myself in this statement to the case of the Australian Colonies, on the ground that, they being the most distant from the Mother Country, their case covers all the others, let me begin with the principles which should govern postal administra- tion. The provision of facilities for intercommunication between the various parts of the empire is, like police, defence against foreign invasion, and the raising of supplies,

a function of the State. But while it is the duty of the State to provide such facilities even at a loss to itself, the State has no right to turn them into a source of indirect taxation, as it does when it makes a profit out of its postal business. writers of the United Kingdom submit at this moment to a tax of more than 3,000,0001. The letter per annum.

Now I contend that there is, or ought to be, no loss upon the Anglo- Australian mails; certainly no loss to England, whatever may be the case with Australia. There is a gross revenue from those mails of 200,0007, a year, enough of itself to pay for the present weekly service, including collection and distribution at each end. This revenue capitalised would be sufficient to provide a fleet of 16 vessels like the "Ormuz," making the voyage in 28 days. I maintain, therefore, that the Anglo-Australian mail service, at the existing rates of 6d. per oz. letter, Id. newspaper, and 47. per 4 oz. book packet, is self-supporting.

per 4 oz. That being so, the time

has come when some move towards reducing the rates might be made. Step by step a certain amount of loss might be risked, in the belief that increase of correspondence would replace the sacrifice of revenue, and thus, I am confident, we should arrive, by easy but rapid stages, at the goal of the penny post. I am aware that the first step, and the most difficult, is to put the service on an actual self-supporting basis. can only be done as existing contracts expire and as interests founded upon them disappear; and if I can induce the British and Colonial Governments to join in an earnest effort to accomplish that initial stage, my cause will already have won.

This

Let me explain what I mean by putting the service on an actual self-supporting basis. The revenue is 200,000, but the expenditure is, so far as can be made out, 210,0007, of which 160,000, is contributed by Australia and 50,000/. by England. The alleged expenditure is still heavier, owing to Australia being saddled with a share of the enormous subsidy paid for the mails between England, India, and the East, but I will come to that by-and-by What I contend is, that the mail service between England' and Australia should be put upon an cutirely separate footing, independent of India and of every other country, and that such a service could be provided by the existing revenue of 200,0001. a year. We have suffered enough in Australia already from being mixed up with India in mail matters. Apart altogether from this charge that a large portion of the Indian mail subsidy is paid on our account--a charge which I entirely repudiate--many members of the Conference are aware of the enormous inconvenience of the delays caused to the Australian mails at Suez through having to wait for the Bombay mail sometimes as long as four days. This may have been well enough in former times when Australia was just emerging from the chrysalis state of an insignificant settlement. But now the relative importance of India and Australia

is reversed, and it is the Australian line of communication that ought to be regarded as the trunk line, those to India and the East being merely branch or tributary lines. Whether we take the white population, the growth of trade, or the postal business as our standard, Australia is much inore important a member of the great Imperial family than India. Take the postal business as an example. The revenue from the Indian mails is 55,000, that from the Australian mails is 200,0001, Yot the postal convenience

of Australia is made subservient to that of India.

It may be asked by what process is this change to be effected? By enlarging to the utmost extent the area of competition for the carriage of the mails. No less than

116 first class steamers, more than two a week, left Europe for Australian ports last

year.

The mail lines now in operation are as follows :--

1. The Peninsular and Oriental viâ Colombo.

2. The Orient viâ Suez.

3. The Union via San Francisco.

4. The Shaw, Savill, and Albion, direct to New Zealand.

5. The New Zealand Shipping Company, direct to New Zealand.

6. The British India vià Torres Straits.

7. The Messageries Maritimes from Marseilles.

8. The North German Lloyd from Southampton.

Then a new route has just been projected viâ Liverpool and the Canadian Pacific Railway. All these lines are cager to carry our mails, but virtually most of them are excluded from tendering. Either from some fault in the form of tender called for, or

from the want of business aptitude on the part of the Post Office, the effect has been to shut out all but the two loading Australian lines, and even to throw theso into Ρ

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