AUSTRALIAN POSTAL SERVICE AND THE CIRCUMLOCUTION-OFFICE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 410, 8 October 1856, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN POSTAL SERVICE AND THE CIRCUMLOCUTION-OFFICE.

(From the ' Times,' I9lh June.) The Circumlocution-office m;iy well be proud of the power it exercises. It has, as we all know, strung capacities for obstruction, and uses them to the astonishment of England and lSngland's antipodes. It is not given to all men lo defeat the improvements of modern science, and to check communication between the extremities of the empire. From the beginning of the late war until the present moment the postal intercourse between the Australian colonies and the mother country has been all but paralyzed. We need not expatiate upon the frightful inconvenience which has "l resulted from this slate of things. Commercial transactions of the greatest magnitude have been brought to a standstill ; or if operations have been continued, certain loss and bankruptcy have been the reward, of ill-timed enterprise. At first there was no disposition on any side to murmur at that which seemed to be an inevitable consequence of an unavoidable war. We knew well enough when we entered upon hostilities that many ICuglishmen would be killed and many ruined, and that, at any rate for a time, there must be a dislocation of our usual marine postal arrangements. .All this was had enough, but men who had cast in their lot with England "were content to take the rough with the smooth. For a longtime past, however, any sue!) necessity has ceased to exist. The passage from London or Southampton to Aden, at the southern extremity of the Red Sea, has been as clear as the passage from Folkstone to Boulogne. There has not, as far as we are aware, existed any greater difficulty in finding steamships for the transmission of letter-bags between the points named than exists at this moment between the Channel ports. AH that was required was a temporary arrangement between- Aden and Kin«- George's Sound, by -way of the Mauritius —if Diego Garcia were not at once available—or, indeed, by any other route which might present the fewest practical difficulties for immediate solution. Any ordinary commercial house engaged in foreign trade would within 48 hours have made some contrivance for tiding over the obstacle. Things .are managed in" a more discreet manner in the Circumlo-cution-office. The last advices from; Australia are nearly 100 days old. It is in vain that, all merchants engaged in the Aus. tralian trade have held meeting after meeting. It is in vain tli.it they have memorialised the Government, that they have complained of the unnecessary inconvenience to which they have been subjected, and have pointed out the futility with which a remedy might have been found. Nor have the complaints been con'h'ned to this country alone. Frcm the Australian colonies remonstrances of the moat vigorous kind have been despatched home. Noi' have these remonstrance* been mere expressions of puling discontent. The petitions have said, ' Give us the accommodation we require, and we are willing to contribute large Bums —soniuch, and so much —as our proportion of the cost.' The very lihemlily aiul straightforwardness of f eir own oilers have been turn?d against them. The circumlocution '. : e;ii!einc!ii have been of opinion that the hast d'-fire.; of respect tiiul could be

shown to the colonists, in order to mark our sense of their liberality, was to consult them upon the specific: manner in which their money should be expended. Hence a delightful series of references between England" and the antipodes; hence queries aiid counter-queries, notes and additional'notes, representations, misrepresentations and counter-representations, memorials and mar-a-inal comments upon memorials, which seemed to 'My Lords' to require further explanation and elucidation.

It must have been a great clay for "My Lords" when this business of the Australian postal arrangements fell, into their hands. The tiling was .so simple, and they have contrived to render it so wonderfully obscure. To them, indeed, personally the whole merit of this great achievement cannot be attributed. Without a thoroughly well-founded system of procrastination, carefully considered and efficiently carried out by the most ingenious agents for a century or so. this result could not have been attained. No given set of men living at the same time could arrive at such a high point of excellence. This is a quest ion of tradition and successive generations. The science of procrastination must have been pushed to a very high point indeed ere the world could enter into the full fruition of Downing-street and its dependencies. As\y ordinary man would feel uneasy if it were his duty to expedite business, and he devoted his days and nights to arresting its progress. Me must be Initiated into the mysteries of ''the office ;" the blue foolscap and red tape must have •entered into his very soul before he could «-o home complacently to his dinner after bavin"caused unbounded inconvenience to his fellow-creatures in return for so many thousands or hundreds a-year which they are foolish enough to bestow upon him in return for the vexation and loss he inflicts upon them. It is to this wonderful influence, which pervades every department of State, and eveiy office in wl.i.-h clerks are confined for the ncn- ;i despatch " of public business, that this unfortunate delay about the Austialian postal arrangemust be attributed. Mr. Wilson, for instance, used to be a man of nimble inte let and quick action enough before he was installed in this official Boeotia. He is now cunning in the science of "how not to do ' it ' "and most dexterous at explanations of ■why nothing should be done. His ingenuity is turned into a wrong channel—'and so much the worse for Australia, and for all men who are connected with it by ties of business. Nothing as yet has been done, except that in reply to.-inquiries which have heen addressed to him recently on two occasions in the house, Mr.^ Wilson has stated that tenders might yet be sent in.

Here, then, we are disputing about which is the best of all possible routes between England and the antipodes, and meanwhile it requires something- like half-a-year to get an answer from either side. We are like the blear-eyed old chemists who spent their lives iv the/midst of-famine and rags, while .they were in search of the secret which should convert every substance into the most precious of metals. The first point clearly is to shorten the period actually employed in the transmission of letters between London and Sydney,"by one-half; and this can be done by one stroke of an official pen, which, after the achievement, should be hung- up in the Circumlocution-office in sampitem-um. When this feat lias been accomplished, we may enter with greater propriety upon such niceties as the savin"1 of an hour or two, more or les-s.

Uinrii. —At K'lhinni, on lii^ (ii'n instant, Uio wife .of W. C. De.swiek l£sq. of n dauglitcr.