82
collusion, so that where there ought to be competition, the Post Office has produced combination. This state of things must be reversed. Competition for the mail business must be made open and murestricted, so that the work may be done in the best manner at the lowest price. The result would very speedily bo to make the diture come within the revenue. As new contracts are made, advantage should be expen- taken of the conditions of the steamship service, and what I urge now is that, so much timo having been wasted over the pending contracts, the existing ones should be extended for a year, and that entirely new tenders be invited for such a service as will ensure a brisk competition instead of a foregone conclusion. I understand that there is nothing binding in the present condition of the pending contracts. events, Fan informed that Victoria still consilers them an open question. In that At all case there can be no difficulty in the way. asking for a weekly service (which no one company can supply) must necessarily be to And I may point out that the effect of throw two or more companies into partnership, and so restrict the area of competition. I believe that if such a procedure were adopted in regard to all new contracts as they arise, the question of cheaper postage throughout the empire would speedily solve itself. It would strike at the root of the obsolete system of subsidies, would restore postal administration to a healthy and natural condition, and, in short, would remove all the obstacles with which I have been confronted.
II.
I wish now to make some remarks upon the existing and projected arrangements. I contend that towards the cost of the present service Australia is paying too much and England too little, while on the one hand England gets the lion share of the
The following facts should be borne in mind:--
revenue.
1. Of the postage collected in England (67. per letter), England keeps 3477, and gives
Australia 2.; Australia keeps the whole of her postage.
2. But fivo letters go from England to Australia for every four that come from
Australia to England.
3. The only charge upon the English Post Office is the cost of transcontinental service (50,0001. a year, as I am officially informed), while Australia pays no less than 150,000. No doubt it will be said that England actually conveys the Australian mails to and from Colombo, in the vessels she subsidises for the East Indian service; but these vessels would have to go to Colombo even if Australia did not exist, so that Australia has to thank England for nothing. Besides, these very vessels leave London and call at many ports on the Australian route. Bearing the above facta in mind, we must see the fallacy of the statement so often put forward on behalf of the British Post Office. It is as follows:-
The minimum postage of a letter to Australia is 6d.
Of this England keeps 3d, and gives Australia 2d., while Australia keeps the whole of her sixpences.
Of the 33. kept by England she has to pay 1. to France and Italy for, the trans- continental section, and this not only on the outward letter, for which she gets 34d., but on the homeward letter for which she gets nothing. Adding the outward and the homeward together, she pays away 3d. out of her 3d, leaving her only ., while Australia on the two letters nets 8jd. (6d.+2}d.).
This seems very sad for England until we put the calculation another way, thus: England sends out five letters to every four sent home by Australia :—
On the five outward letters England gets
On the four homeward letters England gets
s. d.
1 5
0 0
1 5
On the five outward letters Australia gets 2d. each: On the four homeward letters Australia gets
-
1 01
2
0
01
On the "round" letter (taking nino as the unit) England gets almost exactly a half of the amount received by Australia-1s. 5. as against 38. 03d. But the payments by England are only 50,0001, as against Australia's 150,000, or just a third. A
33
system under which England obtains half the receipts while hearing only one third of the expenditure can hardly be considered as unfair to her. think it is unfair to them.
Australians may, indeed, If we extend the comparison to newspapers and packets, the advantage to England becomes still more striking for the outward newspapers are double the homeward ones; the relation of the smaller parcels is as 3 to 1; and practically all the books carried go from England to Australia.
Further than that, though 137. is charged by the Transcontinental Governments for the oz. letters, the newspaper and book packets are carried at reasonable rates, viz., newspapers. 1d. for 4 oz., and book packets, &c. 17. per 1 oz., the effect being to give England on this branch of the postal business a still larger share of the postal
revenue.
I desire also to call attention to the treatment Queensland has received from the British Post Office in her efforts to introduce a cheaper (-4.) rate for letters. She has met with nothing but opposition and reproof, and to this day she sends letters to England at 4., while England refuses to send letters to Queensland for less than 67., although the whole cost of the service from London to Brisbane is borne by the Colony. Still more extraordinary is the fact that New Zealand has been permitted to do what Queensland has been prevented from doing, mails for that Colony being sent out in the magnificent vessels of the New Zealand Shipping Company, and one is the postal service of the New Zealand Government. The "Rimatuka" has just taken out no fewer than 380 bags of mails. All that Queensland has asked is that the British Post Office should perform the service of the inland post, collecting letters for the Colony and delivering them on board the British India ships at Gravesend, receiving remuneration at the full inland rate of 17.
When such a reasonable per letter. proposal is flatly refused it is obviously time for the Colonies to maintain their postal interests with all the force at their command.
There is another branch of the existing arrangements not necessarily involved in the penny postal scheme, but too glaringly unjust to be passed over-I refer to the contract for the transcontinental service. For the transport of mails from New York to Francisco, a distance of 3,000 miles en route for Australia, we pay 3. per letter. For their transport from London to Brindisi, 1,200 miles, we pay 1. per letter. The character of the bargain made with France and Italy is further shown by the facts I elicited from the Postmaster-General in the House of Commons on Friday night. The arrangement commenced in 1879, and the following have been our annual payments to France and Italy, in each year from that time to the present:-
In 1879.
5.
1880-
1881
"+
., 1882.
1883
3
ཅ་
1884 -
**
1885
1886 -
£
67,224
74,870
77,689
80,503
82,839
93,225
93,190
97,884
showing in the seven years a total increase of 30,6001., although the expense to France and Italy as practically remained the same all through. railway companies have enjoyed a corresponding advantage from their passenger Further than that the traffic; for whereas 20 was formerly a full number, they have recently announced that owing to the great increase they are now putting on an extra passenger car.
Taking the passengers and mails together, I find that the companies benefit even more than appears from the above official figures.
They make in the year 104 journeys of 1,200 miles each, for which they receive from passengers and mails not less than 126,000, or more than 1,000. por journey, and exceeding 11. per mile.
While upon this subject I may point to the amazing fact that no attempt is to be made to obtain a reduction of the extortionate charges for this transcontinental service until the contracts for the sea conveyance are settled. If it is delayed till then
it will manifestly be too late. When once we have arranged to put our mails on board the steamors at Brindisi or Naples; the companies owning the railways to these ports can charge us what they like. The British Post Office is putting the cart before the horse. What is the good of arranging to despatch our mails from a foreign port until we have settled the terms upon which we are to get them thero? I am astonished P 2
C
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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