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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 21ST SEPTEMBER, 1889. 775

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.—No. 400.

The following is published for general information.

By Command,

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 21st September, 1889.

ARATHOON SETH, for the Colonial Secretary,

COPY of TREASURY MINUTE, dated the 18th July 1889, and of the CONTRACT with the CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY, dated the 15th July 1889, for the Con- veyance of HER MAJESTY'S MAILS, TROOPS, and STORES between Halifax or Quebec and Hong Kong, and for the Hire and Purchase of VESSELS as CRUISERS OF TRANSPORTS.

TREASURY MINUTE, dated 18th of July 1889.

MY LORDS have before them the contract, dated the 15th July 1889, which has been arranged with the Canadian Pacific Railway Company for the conveyance of Her Majesty's nails, troops, and stores between Halifax or Quebec and Hong Kong, and for the hire and purchase of vessels as cruisers or transports.

This contract is the result of a tender made by the company in response to the public advertise- ment of the Postmaster General in October 1885, inviting tenders for a mail service between Vancouver (Coal Harbour) and Hong Kong, as part of the Eastern mail service, for which the existing contracts were to terminate on 31st January 1888.

Two tenders were received for this portion of the service.

(1.) From Mr. A. Holt, Manager of the Ocean Steamship Company of Liverpool, for a fortnightly service between Vancouver and Hong Kong, at 11 knots för 108,000l. a year, with an abatement for a 101-knot speed, and an increase for a 12-knot speed.

(2.) From the Canadian Pacific Railway Company for a fortnightly service between Vancouver and Hong Kongin 460 hours, and between Hong Kong and Vancouver in 420 hours, exclusive of deten- tion at Yokohama on both voyages (implying an average rate of speed of 13 knots and 14:02 knots respectively), for the sum of 100,000 l. per annum for 10 years.

In consideration of this subsidy, the Company also offered to carry the mails between Halifax or Quebec and Vancouver by train free of cost; to carry troops on service, and stores, at absolute cost; and to carry a moderate amount of such stores free between Vancouver and Hong Kong; larger quan- tities to be carried at the lowest rate for private goods."

They also offered to construct for the purposes of the contract, under Admiralty supervision, vessels of a high speed adapted for the conveyance of troops, and for conversion into armed cruisers.

This tender of the Company offered, at a less cost, a considerably better service than that offered by Mr. Holt; but as the payment to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company for the conveyance of the China Mails (which it was decided not to separate from the other Eastern Mail Services would not be reduced by the diversion of part of the mails to another route, the tender of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company was not accepted.

The importance, however, of the establishment of an alternative route, both for the conveyance of mails, and for military and naval purposes, was continually pressed upon their Lordships, and in July 1887 the Canadian Pacific Railway Company submitted to the Government a modification of their previous tender.

For a subsidy of 60,000 7. a year they offered to provide a monthly instead of a fortnightly service. They proposed to bring the port of Shanghai within the main route of the mail steamers; and they consented to include the land carriage within the time contract so as to meet the possibility of delay which might be caused by physical or climatic difficulties upon the railway. It was at the same time intimated to the Government that the Canadian Government would be prepared to contribute 15,000 7. a year towards the subsidy.

Her Majesty's Government considered the scheine as a whole, offering as it does direct communi- cation entirely through British territory, and an alternative route to the East. desirable in the interests of the Empire, apart from postal considerations, and under these circumstances my Lords again took the question into consideration.

The

Though the scheme is not justifiable upon postal reasons alone, it offers an alternative service which saves several days as compared with the Suez route, and it is, therefore, of considerable value from a postal point of view. It has the land transit lying wholly within British territory, and as a military route it is held by the military and naval authorities to be of the highest importance. offer of the company to construct mail steamers which could be employed by the Admiralty as armed cruisers in case of need, also accords with the policy already adopted in the case of certain other large steamship companies.