The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 23, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3899, 23 August 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 23, 1875.

Although the local machinery of the Po*t Office is in every-day use by the Colony, there are many mistakes as to its actual cost. The sums paid for conveyance ot mails sound very large, and the money paid on each letter for transmission to its destination seems very small. We read, for instance, of £2;>,000 being paid for the mail service by San Francisco, and for the use of that service we send letters, or newspapers, or books for a few pence. The diiference appears immense, when the doctor side only of the account is seen. It looks almost impossible to gather a sufficient number of coppers together to reduce such large amounts to reasonable expenses. It is true that the Post Office is not a self-sustaining institution, but it is shaping rapidly in that direction. An idea, may bo formed of the progress of the Colony towardssuch a consummation, from a few figures culled from the “ Report on the Postal Service of New Zealand,” laid before Parliament this session. The mail steam services are as follow : The temporary San Francisco Service, expected to continue until November next ; the steam service between Manukaitj Nelson, and the West Coast: a service for delivery and receipt of the West Coast English mails : a service between Port Chalmers and Fiji, and a monthly service from Port Chalmers round the Middle Island, alternately proceeding by Cook and Foveaux Straits. Although the subsidiary services add to the cost of foreign mail communication, they may be considered part of our Colonial home arrangements, and in various ways, beside carrying mails, contribute to . the comfort and prosperity of the solonista. The subsidies paid for conveying the mails induce settlement and commerce, by connecting districts with ports of import and export that would otherwise be isolated or perhaps desert. The same may be said of foreign services, so far as they foster commerce between New Zealand and foreign countries, although their action ts not so direct and traceable. For this reason they better serve to illustrate the monetary woi’king af the Post Office system with the Mother Country. New Zealand had, in 1874, three distinct mail services, the net cost of which is estimated at <£lß,ooo in round numbers. Che service via San Francisco cost—for he main service, .£24,583 j and for the ntcr-provincial services, £B7O, makUg a total of £25,453. As a set-off igainst this, the Imperial Post Office nved the Colony £6,800; from non;ontracting Colonies £1,071 was revived, and the postages collected in the Joiony amounted to £7,602, thus leuvng a net balance of £9,981 us the ictual cost of tho service. The Galle ml Suez Service cost in payments to Victoria £11,812 ; the outlay on the nter-colonial service was £5,000, nd bonuses were awarded, which, with Uier expenses, reached £1,095 ; total, A i ,907. Against this thelmperial Post )ffice was indebted £4,802, and the lolonial postages amounted to £5,150, saving a balance of actual cost of >7,955. The third service was by orres Str.iit. It is not to be antioiatad that very great use was made of iis route on account of the trifling nnnmnieafeion between Queensland

and this Colony, In feci, it is matter for surprise that it has been utilised even to the small extent that it appears to have been by the payments to Queensland, amounting to £4ll. The leturn expected from the Imperial Post Office is £304, so that the cost to the was only £lO7. From these statistics it will be seen that the actual cost to the Colony of the three services amounted to £18,040, for the report informs us, under tormer arrangements we should have had to pay £30,000.