COLONIAL POSTAGE. [From the Times, April 28.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 843, 31 August 1853, Page 4

COLONIAL POSTAGE. [From the Times, April 28.]

The short debate in the House of Lords last Tuesday upon our Australian communications opened an instructive view of our whole system of colonial postage. Very few months have elapsed since the Government of this country, tardily discerning the extraordinary growth of the Australian colonies, and the exigencies likely to be created by the movement in this direction, entered into a special don tract with a certain company for carrying the mails to those parts on new and eligible conditions. What became of the steamships despatched upon this duty we need not say, but the results now disclosed are worthy of special remark. The new contract for the conveyance of the Australian mails has come to nothing, bur, so far is this failure from being regarded as a misfortune, that Government appears only too well pleased to be released from its bargain ; and half a dozen offers from other companies to take up the lapsed engagement have been declined with the greatest promptitude and decision. The Australian Royal Mail Company would, but for its own incapacity, have been now

carrying the mails between this country and thegold regions in the South. As it happens, it to* tally broke down in the trial ; and this accident is now treated as a fortunate occurrence. Lord' Canning, indeed, even spoke as if the Treasurywould be only too thankful for a few more such God sends. The engagements, he observed, to which the revenue of this country was liable for carrying on the mail packet service amounted to£Boo,ooo a-year, and in pursuance, too, of contracts extending over considerable periods of time. So that, " unless in the case of some ac» cident, such as had happened with regard to the Australian Company, where thert was an entire failure on the part of the contractsrs to fulfil their engagements, the Government was bound for a great number of years to the payment of this heavy sum." Lord Hardwicke even took occasion to suggest that we should at once buy ourselves off from these bargains by the forfeit of the fines contingent on such a proceeding, and it seemed from Lord Canning's reply that this hopeful design had been actually entertained, for his Lordship intimated that " legal opinions had been taken on the point," but proved to be unfavourable to the scheme. In plain words, therefore, we stand tied to very bad and very costly bargains in our ocean mail contracts, though but a short time back we added another to the list, and are only released from this climax to our follies by a piece of pure lock. As to the communication with Australia, which suggested the debate, it can certainly be none the worse because vessels like the Melbourne or the Australian are * not plying between Plymouth and Sydney. Lord Canning hit the truth of the matter when he observed, that even if Government were compelled " to employ any vessel sailing from this country as the medium of conveying ship letters, there would scarcely be any inconvenience or delay whatever." The average number of vessels leaving British ports for Australia is full seventy per month, and many of these are now constructed for the attainment of the very maximum of speed. The clippers turned out from our private yards would probably make the run to Port Phillip and back again before such steamers as we have lately seen had completed the outward voyage. 0/ the facilities thus afforded Government is now wisely preparing to avail itself. It appears to have been decided that the carriage of the mails shoul-l be regulated by periodical competition. Advertisments are to be issued, inviting tenders for the conveyance of one or more mails in alternate months from this country to Australia. Government will announce the price it is disposed to pay for the service, and will adjudge the bargain to those who offer the best conditions in respect of time ; all collateral stipulations or restrictions being, as far as possible, avoided. The scheme, as was remarked, is certainly "an experiment," but we are mistaken if it does not prove a successful one. Another consideration, however, of most material importance is involved in tbe rate of postage to be levied upon the colonial lettets. The question, as our readers know, has been made tbe subject of a certain " agitation" in its way, end the "ocean penny postage" principle has found an unexpected advocate in Lord Grey, who after omitting to propose or sanction any reduction whatever during tbe period of his own official responsibilities, now thinks that the revenue as well as the public would gain from the imposition of a penny charge upon a half-ounce letter, and disparages accordingly the liberal reduction made by the present Government from a varying rate, tbe average of which was as high as Is., to !an uniform charge of 6d. On tbe other hand, Lord Canning replied , with some reason, that tbe difference of circumstances in land and sea postage prevented tbe establishment of any analcgy between the two cases as far as the revenue was concerned. Colonial correspondence cannot certainly, under any conditions, be so extensive as inland correspondence ; and, while tbe number of letters, therefore, must necessarily be smaller, the expenses of conveyance must inevitably be greater. His Lordship, however need uot have specified " costly steamers" as the sole or the permanent agency available for this service, since his own explanation had shown how a better machinery was likely to be employed, at any rate upon tbe Australian line. Nevertheless, so long as the present heavy contracts exist, to press upon the country with a weight, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer described it, " wholly disproportionate to the benefits derived," the question of the public revenue must needs be considered as well as that of the public accommodation, and the point to be decided is whether the increase of correspondence to be anticipated from a diminished rate of post--I age will keep up the gross amount of returns now received. At present the produce from co-*. lonial postage is not only small, but, as we aro given to understand, smaller than was expected, so that something is evidently operating to check tbe natural current of correspondence. Government has already ventured upon a reduction of the rate to 6d., and a large augmentation must therefore at once occur to maintain the revenue as it stands. Whether this augmentation would be multiplied sixfold upon a further reduction of tbe charge to Id. must needs appear a doubtful question ; but, we are quite prepared to acknowledge that even a loss to tht revenue on such s point might be a gain to the State. It is difficult to believe, on the whole, that a penny ocean postage could ever be actually self-supporting ; but, if such improved machinery as is now suggested were substituted for the " costly steamers" at present indulged with Parliamentary grants, we think the ultimate loss to tbe revenue by the penny rate, might prove no larger than everybody would be willing to accept. The chief moral of the case lies in tbe engagements to which we have committed ourselves. We not only adopted a system which even at that time was exposed to severe strictures, but we tied ourselves up to the retention of this system through, a succession of years, notwithstanding any improvements which experience might suggest, or any enlightenment which time might bring. At the very last hour we repeated the experiment, and it is only through accident that our encumbrances are not heavier and more embarrassing than they are. Surely we may take our warning for the future from these incidents of our "mail packet service."