§ SIR GEORGE BOWYERsaid, he rose to ask, Whether the Government will consider the delay which will be caused by the new mode of transmitting the Mails to Malta? By the new contract with the Peninsular and Oriental Company, the Mails would be conveyed viâ the Straits of Messina, and would not touch at Malta. Upon application to the Colonial Office, he was informed that every Tuesday a Mail would be sent out to Messina, and that boats from Messina would carry the Mails to Malta. The distance was 170 miles, and the consequence was that the Mails would take in the transmission a week or ten days instead of five days.
§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTHsaid, in reply, that the Government had already taken into consideration the delay that would be occasioned in the transmission of Mails to Malta in consequence of the new arrangement with the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and the Postmaster General had made arrangements by which, in addition to the weekly mails leaving Southampton every Saturday, which reached Malta, viâ, Gibraltar, in nine days, a Mail would be despatched every Tuesday, viâ Messina, which would reach Malta in seven days. He did not know that it would be possible to make arrangements which would be more convenient.