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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 101, 28 April 1873, Page 2

A Fkiend, who does not talk on 'Change nearly so much as be thinks at home, has views about mail subsidies; and I am more than half inclined to believe that he is right. His notion is that we should discontinue large payments for the comparatively slow transport of letters, and devote the money to subsidising telegraphs and cheapening electric communication. Why devote vast sums to an old-fashioned system rapidly being superseded by one j* almost instantaneous celerity ? Isn'^ i fc something like endeavouring to set *&*% coaches running between Lop^ ll , &x & Brighton after railway * a ™ w«re doing the 60 miles in 60 minutes ? Tfcere. is no reason wb** . che ocean telegraph should not tv? s av&l J aD^ for domestic as for bjN' Aies^ corres P on^ ea ce. The only condition is that it be a vehicle sufficiently cheap, and this can only be accomplishedd , primarily by state subsidy to the lines. With constant and cheap use of the wires we would have columns of news in the papers where we now have disjointed sentences. If we heard by wire that our friends were well we could wait a little loDger for those domestic details of private correspondence, ■which wouldn't be at all the worse for an extra week's ripening upon the passage. Is it worth while paying big mail subsidies for carrying invoices and bills of lading, which might just as well come by the vessels carrying the goods, the general particulars anticipating ; arrival by the electric wire ? lam sure my friend tis only urging now what is inevitable before many years are over. And the consummation may be hastened. .Think of it Mr. Francis I—Australasian.1 — Australasian. ,