THE POSTAL CONFERENCE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 470, 15 April 1867, Page 3

THE POSTAL CONFERENCE.

(From the Sydney Horning Herald, March 30.) The general rc.-ult of the Postal Ccu.| terence, and the way in which that result! has been arrived at, have now been placed before our readers - It will assist still fur-j ther towards a rigid comprehension of the! question if we group together some of the figures which illustrate tne operation of the present uud tne proposed plan. The total cost of the Suez route, as all present carried out, is £175,507 Is. 6d. T-d tL- ‘he i fger portion, or £l:l,;;i! is. tiis jimd lor the service between Qalle and Sydney. This includes all incidental expellees lor mail boxes, naval agenda, special packets between .borer and Calais, and Egyptian transit rate The sum of £10,431) is tin* Joint colonial contribuiion to the trunk line from Southauipton to Qalte. The intc colonial branch services amount to £27,0134, and are dii ruled us follows:

Between King George’s Sound and Adei:: ; de ‘ ... " .. £2!75 Between Mellmurn l re.v! V Zealand l»W) Belae-m Melbourne mil Tasmania ... ISSO | Between Sidney -i.s! Arw Zealand ... f!0o0 • Between S\uuev and (.Hueadand ... d'JjO j Of this amount the iiome Government (pays £d,loo, or a little less than one-j | fourth. i The Panama service costs £llO 000 for' (lie contract, ami £io,ooo for the isthmus' Mrundt rate, or £l‘iu,ouo in ail. The Torj res Straits route cods £15,000. tomirdsj ■which Batavia will contribute £O.OOO (The total cost of the three servics as at ! present constituted is as follows ; I £ R. d. ! Suez... ... 175,507 1 6 I Panama 120,000 0 0 j Torres Srraits . , ... 45.(100 0 0 i Total... ... £3l-0.507 1 G ! On fixing the future cost, therefore, at £IOO,OOO, the Conlorence allowed a eonjsiderable margin, unless the hraneii services are to ho more expensive than at i present. But ttie most expensive of these, |viz., that between King George's Sound land Port Adelaide, is to be abandoned, as the steamers are to call at Kangaroo Island. But there will have to be one .between Melbourne and Wellington, in i connection with tho Panama route, aud (arrangements also for forwarding letters to and from Adelaide and Brisbane for the (same route. But these latter will not be 1 expensive, as the existing intercolonial ’steamers will do the work for a moderate I bounty on each mail trip. The Queensland Government has an offer cf a dc-fmite I I amount for the Torres Straits route from i; the AS.N. Company aud the Met norlands j . India Steam Navigation Company. Thej A.b.N. Company lias offered to .do the! ..service to dalle for less than the present 1 (subsidy. So that it is a matter of cu-j ■jtainty that the limit of .tkiJ,ooo cannot! -be ex'cedal, ami will not even be reached. The cost of ihe present Suez line is dis- , tributed partly in proportion to distance, and partly in proportion to the number of ! letters. This makes it come heavy on ' New Zealand, which is at tho most remote - point by that route, and has a large corres--1 pondcnce in proportion to its population, ihe colonial distribution of the Suez subside, taken by itself, is as follows : i

3 So that New Zealand contributes to thej route not only more than New South* I Wales, but even more than Victoria,! ■* I though it never wets the advantage cti J return of post. * j y The cost of the Torres Straits route is all paid bp Queensland, and that of the .|Panama route by New South vvales and 'jNew Zealand. The contributions at preMsent to the three mail services arc respectively a* follows; —

Tiie total-contribution of New Zealand at the present time to ocean postal purposes (exclusive of its subsidy for interprovincial purposes) is very nearly £109.000, and is over £25.000 in fixoess'of what the Home Government contributes. The present contribution of New South Wales is also in excess of what the Home Government contribnt-s. IVlicn the colonies, tliereiorr, lake the initiative in fusing themselves at this rate, it is not unfair of them to sell the Home Government fo be a little more liberal, especially when we remember how freely money has been granted to maintain communication with the less im» portant colonies in the West Indies. The new arrangement as proposed will lighten the burden on New Zealand, and on New South Wales, and ou Queensland but increase it considerably on Victoria, and slightly on South Australia and Tasmania. The distribution, supposing the gross cost to be £197,000, will be as follows : Victoria ... ... ... £50,000 New South Wales ... ... 50,000 New Zealand... ... 50,000 Queensland ... ... 27,51*0 South Australia ... 15,500 Tasmania ... ... 4/JoU

From these amounts there will bo proportionate reductions if the cost should be j less than £197,001, as it probably will. r *el ietorian incr-,use of payment, thoughi large, will appear less so if we remember that it was willing to pay £12,000 to be admitted to the benefits 'of the Panama route, that it is to bo provided at the general cost with a branch between Wellington and Panama (not existent, at present),! and also tiiat its contribution to the Suezj route, as calculated, is really far less than! the proportionate advantages it derives* from that route. By an isolated policy it could not have gained greater advantagefor the same money. The contributions, as agreed upon, arc [not calculated either according to distance, or to pooulutiou, or to corresnondence, nor according to any combination of all three, but according to the general principles laid down in Mr. Parkes’s memorandum. There is a certain vagueness about thoscprineiples which makes it impossible to express them in figures with arithmetical accuracy, and therefore the estimate is made in round numbers. It is possible the distribution may have to be revised hereafter it the different colonies increase their importance in a different . alio, because t.n-re is no self adjusting aiTingement, as there would be if tne payment were according to the number of letters. But this re-adjustment, if necessary, will have to be carried out by the proposed Federal ' Council.

'iiie jin-rent ratio of population in tinseveral colonies is, in round numbers, as fo:luv-‘5 :—• Vidoris ... ... ... 030,000 New South Wale* ... ... 43-.i’ooij South Australia . 165,000 .No"- /.-abaci 220,000 V»mis!ami... 100,001) Tas;u:.ii;a ~ ... IOo.OPO Western Australia ... ? Total ... 1,0 I,';,000 ILe present ratio of correspondence, i e., ibe number of letters .-oreieed and dispatched, m one year, is as follows : Vi.iG.ale. Via Panama. Victoria 1,034,663 . . 20.547 N. S. Wales ... 475.302 70,i‘51) S. Australia ... 251,125 ... 3,120 New Zealand ... Qa-ecdani ... 2!2d21 S'is;n:t!iia 82.175 W. Australia ... 3ld i t 2,t)39,i50 The amount of correspondence pent V 1 way of Torres Straits inis been Tory small. It. will be larger when the mail service by that route is lixeo, and when it is known that the postal charge is not higher than hy any other route. The correspondence by the Panama route is only partially developed. The mass of correspondence from this colony to England goes via Southampton, and many of the letterwriters do not yet understand that h,tiers sent via Panama ev.t t'.e same as those via Southampton, and are not longer on the passage, indeed are generally a day or two less. The statistics of next year will probably show a great increase in the corresipuudence via Panama.

£ s. d. Victoria ... 28,774 10 11 ATnv South Vale* ... 14,033 iu 6 South Australia ... ... 17,093 1 0 Kow Zealand 32.194 9 6 Queensland Tasmania ... 9,474 7 3,138 13 4 11 Western Australia 719 9 n

United Kingdom £ 8. ... 69.437 13 d. 2 Victoria ... 25,774 16 11 New South Wales ... 71,933 10 6 South Australia ... ... 17,095 1 0 New Zealand ... 96.194 9 6 *7, ueensiand ... 64,474 7 4 Tasiiumia ... 3 138 13 11 Western. Australia 719 9 2