§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)asked the Postmaster General, Whether the contract for the conveyance of mails to and from Australia has been signed; under what terms are the mails being conveyed now, and what payments are being made to the Steamship Companies; when will the contract be submitted to Parliament for approval; is the proposed contract entirely distinct from the Indian contract; and, have the Australian Governments remonstrated against the days fixed for the departure of the mails from Australia, and with what result?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. RAIKES) (Cambridge University)Contracts for the conveyance of mails to and from Australia by the Peninsular and Oriental and Orient Steam Navigation Companies have been signed; and these are entirely separate and distinct instruments from that which regulates the India and China Service. The Australian Governments are not at present entirely satisfied with the arrangements made for the departure of the mails from Australia; and it is because there are the weightiest reasons against making the alteration demanded in those arrangements that the instruments referred to have not yet been laid before the House of Commons. It would be premature to submit to the House contracts embodying an arrangement which the Colonial Governments may, after all, wish to repudiate; but as soon as I am assured that the hesitation of those Governments as regards the carrying out of the arrangements has been overcome, the contracts can at once be submitted to the House. Meanwhile, the mails are being provisionally carried under the terms of the contracts; and payments on account are being made to the Companies without prejudice to the provisions of the contract relating to the ultimate approval of the House of Commons.