§ MR. HOLMSasked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether, seeing that the Cape Merchants of London are placed in extreme uncertainty with reference to the Contract now upon the Table for conveying the Mails to the Cape of Good Hope, he will inform the House when he expects to submit that Contract to the judgment of Parliament; and, whether, under the pressing nature of the circumstances, he will name an early day for its discussion?
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER,in reply, said, that in consequence of the dissatisfaction felt at the Cape, and by persons engaged in the trade to that colony, the Government had decided not to submit that contract to the judgment of the House. It was therefore at an 1489 end, and matters were remitted for the next three years to their original state. In answer to a Question placed on the Paper by the right hon. Baronet the Member for North Devon (Sir Stafford Northcote), Whether the Government are now paying the subsidy for conveying the mails to the Cape of Good Hope, and also for the conveyance of the mails to Zanzibar, in accordance with the contract of December 19, 1872? he might say that no payment had been made on account of the Cape contract now abandoned. The Zanzibar contract was entered into for a special purpose, the suppression of the slave trade. On account of that contract a payment had been made. The change he had already announced would render necessary a change in the Zanzibar contract. It would be made at once, and the contract as altered would be submitted to the House.