THE INTERCOLONIAL CONFERENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 3121, 19 February 1873, Page 2

THE INTERCOLONIAL CONFERENCE.

If the Conference has not absolutely settled the postal.• question, it has at least got on the other subjects. What the result of all the debating has been still remains a mystery ; but it is certain that one or other of the tenders for the San Francisco mail service will be accepted. It was Mr Vogel’s object in coming to Sydney to prevent this, if possible, and when be found that a commissioner was to go direct from Sydney to Washington, and ascertained the moderate amount of the two local tenders, he saw that all idea of getting a heavy subsidy in favor of the Webb line was out of the question, and that it was necessary to make a bold offer to secure support. The wal aof the rooms in which tho Conference meets are adorned with plans and models of the steamers which Mr Hall has designed for the San Francisco service, and everyone can see how much better calculated to do the work largo iron screw steamers of such a class are than Mr Webb’s wooden vessels. Under these circumstances Mr Vogel offered to bring the Webb line right on to Sydney without any subsidy at all, provided that our Government gave its best support to secure an American and English subsidy. Such a policy promised to relieve Australia at the expense of America, although it must be remembered that the Bill previously submitted to Conference contained a proviso that the non-American subsidy should equal that granted by the United States Government, in which case the English and New Zealand contributions would have to equal that obtained from Washington. The telegrams re-cc-ivedby Mr Vogel from Mr Webb are slightly ambiguous, and are accepted cumyrano. It is difficult to believe that select committees of both Houses have reported in favor of the Bill, when it is known that subsidy bills arc not referred to Select Committees, but go before the Committee of Commerce. There is no difficulty in getting a proposal of this kind through its formal stages in the House ot Representatives. The trmible is the Senate. It is already known in Sydney that the tender of the A.S.N. Company is not very much over L 50,000, while that of Mr Hall is lower still, wnen tills amount h® "undivided out amongst the different colonies, and the mother country gives what it had almost promised to the Duffy-cuwi Vogel line, it will be seen at once that we can afford to be contented with a moderate contribution from the United States—say, not less than LIO.OOO a-year. But it is already giving LI 5,000 a-year simply for the service between San Francisco and Honolulu—a service slowly perfoimed by antiquated tubs. It would save L 5,000 a year on such a supposition by contributing to a service which would give it not only a line to Honolulu but to all the Austraiias. The Americans are natuially proud of their flag at sea, and anxious to extend their steam marine, and lobbying and jobbery are very rife at Washington, yet we can hardly suppose that the Senate will knowingly vote away a LIOO,OOO a-year, for ten years, when a vote of about LIO,OOO a-year for five years will secure them all they want. One of the travelling inspecors of the P. and 0. Company is at present in Sydntey awaiting anxiously the result of the deliberations of the Conference. The company, of course, takes no special interest in the rivalry between tho two sea ports, but it has a keen eye to its profits. As to docking the vessels, supposing that for the future they are to be docked in Australia at all, there is not much to choose between, the attractions of Port Jackson and Port Phillip, but the carriage of coal is a serious item. The freight from Newcastle to Sydney ranges from 4s to 5s a ton 5 that from Newcastle to Melbourne from 14s to LI. To coal in Hobson’s Bay too would require a hulk or a wharf. Geuteris paribus, therefore, the company would prefer its head-quarters at Sydney, nor is it by any means anxious to change its port of call in Western Australia. It is quite possible, however, that the tenders when called for wil be alternative, so as to show the extra cost, if any, of doing all that the several Colonies want. —Argus's Sydney Correspondent.