THE POSTAL CONFERENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 99, 30 April 1867, Page 3

THE POSTAL CONFERENCE.

The following is a portion of the memorial to • the Queen agreed to by the Postal Conference : — The imports into the six colonies during the year 1865, as valued at different ports of arrival, amounted to 35,000,000 sterling; and although the estimate includes the intercolonial trade, carried on by your Majesty's Australasian subjects, and the imports from foreign countries, by far the greater part of this sea-borne commerce assists in sustaining the manufacturing power of the United Kingdom. Their exports, consisting principally of gold and wool, for the same period, amounted to more than 30,000.000. The following are the returns for the several colonies : — Imports. Exports. Victoria £13,257,537 £13,150,748 New South Wales ... 9,257,537 8,191,170 New Zealand 5,594,977 3,713,218 South Australia ... 2,927,596 3,129,846 Queensland 2,505,559 1,534,464 Tasmania 762,357 880,955 34,976,639 30,219,411 Within the last sixteen years, the two colonics of Victoria and New South Wales have produced a supply of gold amounting in value to one hundred and fifty millions sterling, five-sixths of which has been the produce of Victoria alone. The colony of New South Wales has raised from the earth 4,617,100 tons of coal, valued at £2,742,224 ; and her coal-fields, north and south of the port of S> dney, may be said to be inexhaustible. The colonies of New Zealand and South Australia are eminently favored in the rich variety of their resources. New Zealand has risen within the last few years to an important position as a producer of gold and wool. In ten years, the colony of South Australia has exported copper of the value of £4,751,638, while the produce of her corn-fields is unsurpassed by other countries. The colony of Queensland, in addition to her pastoral and mineral wealth, has established by successful experiment her capability of growing both cotton and sugar. Nor are the resources of Tasmania unimportant to the British Empire. Her wool, grain, and timber, Avith the oil of her Avhale fisheries, form a valuable part of Australian exports. In the year 1865, the exports of the associated colonies, in five articles of production, which are selected for their conspicuous value to the world, amounted to more than twenty-one millions sterling. The results are given from the latest official returns : — Victoria — avool £3,315,109, gold £6,120,317; New South Wales— wool £1,624,114, gold £2,657,668, coal £274,303 ; New Zealand — wool £1,141,761, gold £2,226,474; South Australia— wool £964,397, copper ore £6 1 8,472, grain of all kinds £ 1 ,228,480 ; Queensland — wool £885,299, gold _ 101,359 ; Tasmania— wool £381,625, grain of all kinds £107,268. Total — wool, £8,312,305 ; gold, £11,165,811 ; coal, £274,303 ; copper ore, £618,472 ; grain of all kinds, £1,335,748. The four continental colonies of South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, occupy a seaboard of not less than 3000 miles, with points of settlement and traffic throughout its extent ; and the islands of New Zealand are 1000 milts from the Australian coast. The letters brought by the way of Cape Lieuwln by a mail steamer calling at any port in the colony of South Australia, could not be forwarded from that point by any practicable means of communication to your Majesty's subjects at the northern ports of New Zealand under nine days. A steamer arriving by the Torres Straits route would afford still less satisfaction, as the most populous colonies would be the last to receive their letters. The means of communication with many important settlements in the interior of Australia is only by a journey of several days, and cannot on account of cost, be more frequent than once or twice a week. It will thus be seen that any single monthly line of steamers would leave large numbers of your Majesty's subjects unable to reply to their correspondents by the return mails, and that any two or more lines by the same route would fail in affording general satisfaction.

The representatives of the several colonies assembled in conference, after careful and anxious consideration of the whole subject on behalf of their res,pective Governments, approach your Majesty, and humbly and dutifully represent that in order to meet the demands of the large and growing commerce of the colonies, and to serve in a satisfactory manner the complicated interests that connect them with the United Kingdom, it ha. now become necessary to maintain three ocean postal services : one by way of King George's Sound, one by way of Torres Straits, aud one by way of New Zealand and Panama. The last two of these routes have been opened successfully by the enterprise of your Majesty's subjects in Australia and New Zealand, and their advantages to the colonies most nearly affected by them are too apparent to be relinquished. The associated colonies, by their representatives in Conference, have agreed to contribute annually a moiety not exceeding £200,000 of the entire cost of maintaining these three lines of postal communication, and they are prepared to act in combination in contracting for the necessary services to open and maintain these routes in connection with your Majesty's contract services to India and China and to the West Indies, They humbly pray that your Majesty may be advised to take such steps as may be expedient, by terminating or readjusting present contracts, or calling for fresh tenders for the performance of the main services to establish the proposed United Australasian Postal System without drawing upon the limited resources of the colonies beyond the large sunvwhich they undertake to pay.

The Lyttleton Times states "on authority" that important changes in the telegraph department, including the appointment of a new General Manager, are contemplated by the Postmaster-General.