§ THE EARL OF HARDWICKE rose once more to call attention to the important question of postal communication between this country and the Australian Colonies. When, on previous occasions he had done so, he had been constantly mot with the statement that the difficulty experienced by Her Majesty's Government in arriving at a satisfactory solution of the question was caused by the war; but that difficulty, he hoped, would now no longer be pleaded. In the year 1852 a system of steam navigation for postal service was arranged between Australia and the mother country; and although that system was not altogether satisfactory to the Colonies, it nevertheless ensured to them a regular mail communication by way of Suez, at an average passage of sixty-four days. But from the period that the war commenced, in 1854, 548 down to the present moment, the system had been discontinued, there had been no regular mail service, and the mails had been carried, chiefly by merchantmen. He was informed, however, by those who were well acquainted with the condition of the steam traffic on the other side of the Isthmus of Suez, that it was clearly not the war that had put a stop to the communication, inasmuch as the vessels formerly engaged in the postal service were now engaged in other employments in the Red Sea, and that the postal communication might have been maintained throughout the war, had it not been for mercantile speculations and other matters in reference to commerce, of which, doubtless, the Government could not have been aware. The Government had now, it appeared, taken the matter into their serious consideration, and had issued a Treasury minute respecting it, from which, and a lengthened correspondence on the subject, it appeared that tenders had been advertised for by the Admiralty for a steam monthly postal communication, and that not less than six proposals had been sent in. But although the advertisement required that the tenders, which were to be delivered within two months, should specify the route and the maximum number of days on the passage, and that the contract was to last five years, not one word did it contain with reference to the speed the vessels were to travel at; and with regard to the route, it left the contractors to choose their own. Considering, then, the time which this matter had been, in abeyance, and the great importance of the question at this moment—the port of Melbourne shipping not less than £1,000,000 sterling in gold to Eng-every month—he thought that an arrangement should be effected with as little delay as possible. He feared, however, from appearances, that at least eighteen months would elapse before anything was finally settled; for the Government, although they had advertised for tenders, had declared that they must, prior to coming to a conclusion, have an exchange of communication with the various Australian Colonies, in order to ascertain what they were prepared to contribute towards carrying on the communication out of their own funds. This he believed was the first instance in which a British colony had been required to subscribe or vote any portion of its revenue for postal communication with the mother country; still, hard as it might be considered, the colonists themselves were 549 disposed to enter into the arrangement, and to vote a certain sum of money for the establishment and maintenance of a rapid and regular communication with the mother country. What he complained of was the unnecessary delay; for there was no necessity to wait for communications between this country and the colonies, and there was, therefore, no reason why tenders should not at once be accepted, the route chalked out, and the mails dispatched by the new service. He understood that a body of gentlemen of high consideration, connected with Australia, were now in England, and were authorised to treat directly with the Government in reference to this subject. They had declared the readiness of the colonies to contribute very considerable sums of money for this object; and he saw by a petition which was presented to the other House for this object two or three days ago, that Victoria had already appropriated, by a vote, £50,000 a year to steam communication with England, and New South Wales £20,000 a year to the same purpose. With such offers on the part of the colonies, and now that the war was over, with means we undoubtedly possessed of establishing this communication, he saw no reason whatever for requiring a correspondence with those distant colonies, and wasting so many months of valuable time both to them and to ourselves. Before concluding, he would like to say a few words with reference to the line of communication which in his opinion was the best and shortest. Instead of going, via the Red Sea to Singapore and Ceylon, and so on to King George's Sound and Melbourne, he saw no reason why a direct line should not be taken from Suez, touching at the Island of Diego Garcia, to King George's Sound and Melbourne, leaving the colonial authorities, after the arrival of the mails at Melbourne, to run branch steamers to the other Australian settlements. He recommended the route by Diego Garcia, because it was 3,300 miles shorter than the route round the Cape, and no less than 2,330 miles shorter than the route by Singapore. In fact, the line from Diego Garcia to King George's Sound would represent the string of a bow, the route of Singapore representing the arc. Speaking professionally, his belief was, that in the present day, and in the present improved state of steam navigation, there was nothing whatever in currents or tides, or anything but rocks and shoals, that could prevent steam vessels 550 making direct and safe headway; and that therefore a direct line was perfectly feasible. He would now ask his noble Friend opposite (the Duke of Argyll) what progress had been made with the subject to which he had alluded, and if there were any objection to lay upon the table the memorial of the General Association of the Australian Colonies to the Lords of the Treasury in favour of the line by Diego Garcia?
THE DUKE OF ARGYLLsaid, the Government were deeply impressed with the great importance—he would go further, and say the absolute necessity—of reestablishing as soon as possible the postal communication between this country and the Australian Colonies. In pursuance of the Treasury Minute, to which his noble Friend referred, tenders had been sent in to the Admiralty, which were under the consideration of the Government at this moment. It was perfectly true, as his noble Friend said, that the Minute did not specify the particular route which the mails were to take. That was left an open question, in order that by a comparison of the tenders the Government might be better able to decide which route presented the greater advantages. With regard to distance, his noble Friend seemed to have taken his estimate from the memorial which he was desirous of having produced; but in this respect he (the Duke of Argyll) did not think the memorial bad been prepared with very great accuracy, for he found the memorialists speaking of the route by Diego Garcia as the shortest of all by 2,338 miles, whereas the figures on the chart attached to the memorial itself showed that this was a material error, and that it was shorter than the route via Singapore by only 1,100 miles. Moreover, the route via Singapore was not the only eastern route; there was another considerably shorter, which had been already indicated—that by Point de Galle. As to the question of delay, he could assure his noble Friend that the Government were not inclined to postpone the subject unnecessarily. The only difficulty that stood in their way was, that under the new arrangement it was expected by the mother country that the colonies should bear a considerable part—at least half—the expense of the service; and so far from that being felt as a hardship by the colonies, he was convinced, from the correspondence that had taken place, that they would be perfectly willing to close with the arrangement. 551 But before we came to a settlement of the question we ought to have their assent, especially as several colonies had offered their contributions upon conditions which were not easily reconcilable one with another. If a satisfactory arrangement could be arrived at in this country, it might be found expedient, perhaps, not to wait for the assent of every colony. The Treasury Minute was sent out to the colonies on the 4th of November last, and he thought that in the main he might guarantee that the general principle which it sketched out would be acceptable to them. There was no objection to lay the memorial on the table.