Deb 17 March 1853 vol 125 cc296-307
LORD WHARNCLIFFE

would now put to the noble Lord the Postmaster General he questions of which he had given notice; and he felt persuaded that their Lordships would not be surprised that there should be great anxiety on the part of all who were in the remotest degree concerned in the communication between this country and our colonies in the southern hemisphere, to have some explanation of the position in which the contract for the transmission of the mails between this country and those colonies now stood, and the course which the Government intended to take in order to render the service efficient. The circumstances were almost unexampled, and the subject was one of primary importance, not only to those who had correspondents or relations in that quarter of the world, but also to the Government. To enable their Lordships thoroughly to appreciate the force of the case which he wished to place before them, he trusted the House would allow him briefly to recite a few of the facts which led him to put his questions. In 1851 a Committee was appointed by the House of Commons to examine what course would be most desirable for the purpose of establishing mail communication between this country and Australia by steam; the Committee reported, and upon their Report the Government acted. He had not before him the contract finally entered into with the company in whose hands the service was placed; the contract had not been laid before Parliament: with the concurrence of the noble Lord, he now intended to move for the production of a copy of it; but he had a copy of the tender issued by the Admiralty. The tender was issued in December, 1851, and in the course of the following spring a contract was concluded with the company. He had no intention of casting any imputation on any member of the company. Of several of its directors he believed he might say, that if integrity on their part sufficed to insure the due execution of the contract, this contract would be faithfully executed; but this was not a personal question, and its merits did not turn on the individual capacities or responsibilities of directors. Whatever these might be, the proper steps did not appear to have been taken to secure the adequate execution of the contract. In the spring of 1852 the contract was entered into; and the tender accepted by the company contained these among its conditions:—To convey the mails by screw steam-vessels, by one of two routes, six times a year each way, and to deliver and receive mails at King George's Sound, Adelaide, Port Phillip, Sydney, and such other places as the Admiralty might from time to time direct. The course determined on, he believed, was, that they were to proceed by the Cape to King George's Sound, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney; and in point of fact the necessity of touching at King George's Sound—a place where there were almost no settlers—made a difference in the voyage of 1,000 miles, or about a week in time. Further, the conditions stipulated that the speed, on the average, should not be less than 8½, knots an hour; that the vessels were to be subject at all proper times to survey by officers of the Admiralty, and defects discovered immediately made good; that the vessels were to be duly supplied and furnished with all necessary and proper machinery, &c.; that the days and hours of departure were to be fixed by the Admiralty. There was a penalty of 100l. on failure to provide a vessel ready to put to sea at the appointed hour, and 50l. for every day until it should put to sea, unless the default was proved to arise from circumstances over which the contractors and their servants had no control. There was a penalty of 100l. for stopping, lingering, or deviating from the direct course, or putting back or returning, except from stress of weather or other unavoidable circumstance. The contract was to continue for sour years; "payments to be made quarterly, on the production to the Accountant General of the Navy of certificates from the proper officers that the contract had been strictly and punctually performed." The company, he understood, when it tendered, was not in possession of a single vessel. It was composed certainly of gentlemen well acquainted with business. The tender made by this company was for 26,000l.; the next offer which was made by an established company, bonâ fide in possession of vessels was 54,000l. It appeared that the Royal Australian Mail Packet Company had now four vessels in their service—the Australian, the Sydney, the Melbourne, and the Adelaide. And how had they performed the mail service? The Australian, which was the first vessel, was appointed to sail on the 4th of April, 1852; but it turned out that they could not get her ready by that time, and therefore one turn was omitted, and the departure of the first ship was deferred till the 4th of June, on which day she sailed. She arrived at Sydney on the 8th of September—in ninety-seven days. The distance was reckoned to be, on the usual voyage, something above 13,000 miles; taking it at 14,000, she had only made a speed of 148 miles a day; although she was required by her contract to perform at the rate of 8½ knots an hour, which would amount to 204 miles a day. On her return she left Sydney on September 24th, was driven by some defect or other, or want of coals, or something, to the Mauritius, and arrived at Plymouth on the 11th of January, 1853—a passage of 112 days; the speed being about 125 miles a day. The next vessel was the Sydney. She really sailed at the appointed time, the 4th of August last, and arrived at Sydney in the middle of November last—a passage of about 100 days; the speed being on the average 140 miles a day. She left Sydney on the 4th of December, and arrived at Plymouth on the 16th of March; a passage of 107 days, and rate 130 miles a day. This was the last of whose arrival out we had news. The Melbourne started next. She was origi- nally in Her Majesty's Navy, where, under the name of the Greenock, she was understood to be one of the slowest of Her Majesty's steamers. The company in August, in order to be provided for the October mail, proposed to the Admiralty to purchase this vessel, not by paying money for it, but laying down a vessel for Her Majesty in Deptford dockyard, of certain dimensions and upon certain lines, in exchange. Accordingly the vessel was transferred to the company. She was to sail on the 4th of October; she did sail on the 15th. Delays like those exposed persons to very great inconvenience. In the course of her voyage across the Bay of Biscay she broke down, and put into the Tagus for repairs, and again put to sea from Lisbon on the 21st November. She was last heard of as having arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on the 27th December, and left that place on the 1st of January to continue tier voyage, having been seventy-seven days out; she must have made not more than 100 miles a day. The Adelaide was to sail on the 4th of December; but, as usual, there were some deficiencies or imperfections, and she did not sail till the 18th. Then she was forced to put back, and she did not sail until a month after the time when she ought to have started. Next came the Australian, which had just been attempting a second voyage. She was to hare sailed on the 3rd of February, but did not sail until the 24th of February, and put back on the following day, the 25th. She sailed again on the 10th of March, but was forced to run back to Plymouth, after baying been in great danger in the Bay of Biscay, and he understood that she was now entirely withdrawn, and was on her way to London. The inconvenience to the public might be estimated from this summary: The Australian was delayed on her first voyage two months; in the case of the Sydney no delay took place; the Melbourne was delayed for 11 days, besides the stoppage at Lisbon; the Adelaide was delayed 14 days, one day in putting back, and afterwards 16 days—altogether 31 days; and, lastly, the Australian on her second voyage, was delayed in the first instance for 20 days, and afterwards for 18 days, making a total delay of 38 days. With regard to speed, the company were bound by their contract to convey the mails at a speed of at least eight knots an hour; but the Australian, in her voyage out, had performed only six miles per hour, and on her return about five miles an hour. The Sydney, on her outward passage, sailed at the rate of six miles an hour, and homewards about 5½. The Melbourne, on her outward voyage, made only four miles an hour. The average speed of these vessels was, therefore, only 5 3.10th miles per hour; and he thought he might ask whether it was not monstrous that so important a service should be conducted in so imperfect a manner; and he should like to be informed whether there were no means of withdrawing it from the hands in which it was at present placed, and of entrusting it to others? There was no question but that the service, if properly arranged, might be performed in two months, instead of as at present in 100 or 120 days; indeed he understood that lately, letters which had left Australia in the middle of November, had been received by way of India by the Overland mail in the middle of January, and that others which had been despatched from South Australia on the 16th January had arrived here on the 16th March. This fact proved, then, that the mail service to Australia might be accomplished in the course of two months, instead of occupying 100 days, or a longer period. He thought, moreover, there was reason to complain of the company, not only on account of the uncertainty of the service, but in consequence of the manner in which the passengers had been treated, It appeared that the company so entirely filled the Australian with freight, that it was necessary to despatch the passengers' luggage in another vessel; and the consequence was that those who had embarked on board the Australian had now been turned adrift with a very small part of their effects. It was not for him to say what should be done to remedy these evils; but he hoped the Government were prepared to adopt some measures on the subject. He must observe that he could not altogether exculpate the Government from some share in these mishaps, because power was given to them to ascertain, by means of the Government surveyors, whether the vessels were fit for the service on which they were to be employed; but, in spite of the existence of this power, the ships had been allowed to leave port evidently in a totally unseaworthy state. He found that one of the provisions of the tenders was, that "payments will be made quarterly by bills at sight on Her Majesty's Paymaster General, on the production by the contract- ors, from time to time, to the Accountant General of the Navy, of certificates from the proper officers that the contract has been strictly and punctually performed." If the contract was not strictly performed, therefore, the company would not be entitled to a single penny. Another condition of the tenders was this— The contractors shall not assign, underlet, or dispose of the contract, or any part thereof, without the consent in writing of the said Commissioners; and, in case of any deliberate or wilful breach thereof by the contractors, the said Commissioners may terminate it without any previous notice to them; nor shall they be entitled to any compensation in consequence of such determination. He certainly considered that a more efficient arrangement with regard to this service ought to be made, and he hoped the Government would take any steps which they were legally justified in adopting in order to place the whole system upon a more satisfactory footing. He wished to ask whether the Government proposed to snake any arrangement for the more certain transmission of the mails to Australia; and whether they intended to take any steps for more effectually enforcing, or for terminating the contract for that object with the Royal Australian Mail-packet Company? He also begged to move for a copy of the contract entered into between the Admiralty and the Royal Australian Mail-packet Company.

VISCOUNT CANNING

said, that no apology was needed from his noble Friend for bringing before the House an occurrence which had caused such very serious public inconvenience, and so much disappointment and anxiety to private individuals. Before proceeding to answer the noble Lord's question, however, it was necessary that he should notice one or two points to which the noble Lord had alluded with reference to the contract entered into with the company, and the mode in which it had been performed by the latter. Although he did not wish to be considered as standing up as the champion of the company, which he had no desire to do, and which if he did his task would be a very difficult one, he thought it very important that any statement which might go forth from that House to the country should not appear to be at all overcharged. He might, therefore, be allowed to correct one or two of the statements which had been made by the noble Lord. The noble Lord had stated that there was an obligation on the part of the company to send a vessel to Australia in April last year. Now, the agreement between the Admiralty and the company was not entered into until the 2nd of June, 1852, and it was obvious that nothing relating to the performance of a contract made in June, 1852, could have been obligatory upon the company in the previous April. The 3rd of June, 1852, was the first day on which the contract came into operation. In order to set the noble Lord right on another point, he (Viscount Canning) would briefly recapitulate the opportunities of communication which now existed between this country and Australia. The noble Lord had stated that the uncertainty of communication with Australia arose from the shortcomings of this company; but he (Viscount Canning) must remind the House that the Royal Australian Mail-packet Company was not the only means of communication between England and the Australian colonies. There was, or ought to be, a regular monthly mail to Sydney, starting alternately from Plymouth and Southampton; the one mail being conveyed on alternate months by the Peninsular and Oriental Company, by way of the Mediterranean and the Isthmus of Suez; and the other, also on alternate months, conveyed by the Australian Mail-packet Company, whose vessels started from Plymouth, and went, by way of St.- Vincent's, the Cape, King George's Sound, and Port Phillip, to Sydney. There was not, therefore, that entire absence of all other communication with Australia which seemed to be supposed by his noble Friend. He (Viscount Canning) did not mention this in extenuation of the way in which the Australian Company had performed their duties, but in order to assure their Lordships and the public of there being still in existence a safe and reliable means of communication between this country and Australia. His noble Friend then proceeded to find fault with the way in which the company's vessels had performed their voyages; and the noble Lord's calculation, he believed, was, that the average number of miles run amounted to not more than 148 a day. He (Viscount Canning) could not help thinking that, in making that calculation, his noble Friend must have left out of consideration the stoppages which the company's vessels were called upon to make. They were obliged, if necessary, to deliver mails at St. Vincent's and at the Cape, and, after reaching the shores of Australia, to make two stoppages before they arrived at Sydney. It was therefore only fair, in calculating the amount of mileage performed, that these stoppages should be taken into consideration. He did not wish it to be understood that he was praising the Australian Packet Company for the punctuality or rapidity with which they had done their work; but he thought he could state more clearly than his noble Friend had done the particulars of their failures in these respects. With regard to the Australian, on her first voyage she was 95 days in reaching Sydney, and, according to the papers attached to the contract after it was signed, but which were equally binding with the contract itself, 79 days was the period allowed for the voyage. On the return passage this ship was 113 days in going over the same ground. In the one case, therefore, there was an excess of 16 days, and in the other of 33 days beyond the allotted period. With regard to the touching of the packets at King George's. Sound, he was not prepared to defend the arrangement under which that provision formed part of the contract. That contract, as he had before said, was signed in June of last year, and he was quite ignorant of the motives which induced the Government at that time to adopt this provision, though he had no reason to suppose that it was done without due consideration. He was, however, inclined to agree in the opinion that the stoppage at King George's Sound was, upon the whole, unnecessary. His noble Friend had correctly stated the various failures and mischances of that unfortunate vessel, the Australian. She ought, on her last voyage, to have left Plymouth on the 3rd of February; but before that day arrived a notification was received by the Admiralty from the company, announcing that the ship would not be ready to start on the 3rd, and begging that her departure might be delayed till the 23rd. The Admiralty gave their sanction to that arrangement; the mails were sent down to Plymouth on the 23rd, but the Australian was not ready, and did not start until the 24th. For that delay, without the sanction of the Admiralty, the company were fined, by virtue of the provisions of the contract, and that penalty would be enforced. On the 24th the Australian put to sea. On the 25th, as their Lordships saw from the public papers, she put back disabled, and with the mails she was conveying very seriously damaged. So far as regarded the public service, the Government felt it their duty, without re- ference to what might be the fate of the Australian, to provide for the immediate despatch of the letter part of the mails, as distinguished from the newspapers. It so happened that the 25th of February was within seven days pf the departure of the other branch of communication with Australia—the despatch of the next monthly steamer from Southampton. The letter portion of the mails was consequently sent to Southampton, and was there shipped on board the Peninsular Company's steamer, and was now on its way by the Mediterranean and Singapore to Australia. He did not apprehend that the public would suffer much inconvenience in consequence of this unfortunate accident to the Australian, for by the Mediterranean and overland route letters would reach Australia nearly as soon as if the Australian had proceeded on her voyage. After sundry examinations and repairs, and one or two experimental trips, it was announced to the Government that the Australian would be ready to start on the 10th of this month. She did start accordingly, with a new mail, partly for the Cape and partly consisting of letters which had been received at the Post Office for Australia since the departure of the Peninsular boat. On the 14th or 15th the Australian put back to Plymouth more than ever disabled (the mails, however, having suffered no injury), and he believed she was now on her way up the Channel to London for repairs. That portion of the last mail which was addressed to the Cape and to Natal was, on the return of the Australian, immediately transhipped to a vessel belonging to the Screw Steam Shipping Company, which sailed the next day. No serious delay would therefore take place with regard to those letters, and, in fact, the only portion of the mails which had been confided to this unfortunate vessel that would be at all retarded, and the delay of which would be attended with inconvenience to our fellow subjects in the Australian colonies, was the newspapers. This would, no doubt, be a great inconvenience to the colonists, but it would have been quite impossible for the Government to have made any arrangement for the transmission of newspapers by the mode in which the letters were sent. The conveyance of 150 large bags of newspapers across the Isthmus of Suez would have been utterly hopeless, unless the Government could have given due notice, that provision might be made for their transmission. The newspapers thus delayed would, in all probability, be conveyed from this country in the course of a day or two by some of those fast-sailing passenger vessels which were constantly starting from London or Liverpool for Australia, and they would in the ordinary course of things be delivered in the Australian colonies in from ninety to ninety-five days after leaving the coast of England. He believed he had now replied to the inquiry of his noble Friend, so far as it related to the transport of the present mails. With regard to the inquiry of his noble Friend whether Her Majesty's Government intended to take any steps for more effectually enforcing the terms of the contract with the Royal Australian Mail Packet Company, it was necessary he (Viscount Canning) should state that, during the time when those delays were occurring in consequence of the mishaps of the Australian, the Lords of the Admiralty received from the chairman of the company a letter setting forth the difficulties under which the company conceived they had been called upon to perform the service, praying for favourable consideration under the circumstances, and stating, that as it would be impossible for them to provide a vessel for the conveyance of the mails which ought to leave England in due course on the 3rd of April, they hoped the Admiralty would consent to forego the service for that month, and would be satisfied if a vessel was prepared by the 3rd of June. That letter was referred by the First Lord of the Admiralty to a Committee, which was now sitting to investigate the whole system of the Post Office Packet Service—a matter with reference to which the First Lord of the Admiralty and the Chancellor of the Exchequer had thought it advisable to obtain the assistance of certain Members of the Government, or persons in the employ of the Government, who were more or less conversant with that service. This Committee having had the letter in question before them, yesterday reported their opinion upon it. As, however, he (Viscount Canning) was not in a condition to state that any action had been taken upon this report or opinion, he hoped the noble Lord would not press him to give any distinct declaration of the terms in which that opinion was conveyed. It would, perhaps, be sufficient if lie assured the noble Lord and the House that the consideration with which the Committee approached the subject was, that while, on the one hand, it was most desirable that the Government should not hastily incur the charge of straining their legal rights, or pressing with unreasonable hardship upon a company that found itself in the difficulties in which this company was represented to have been, yet, on the other hand, it was their firm conviction that if the system of contract for packet services of this nature was to prevail, and if the public was to be called upon annually to pay very large subsidies to private companies for such services, it was the duty of the Government to insure to the public the enjoyment of what ought to be the result of all such contracts—a reasonable amount of punctuality, certainty, and despatch. He did not think it necessary to go further into detail. He was not quite sure whether the contract for which the noble Lord had moved was not already on the table, but, if not, it should be presented forthwith.

LORD COLCHESTER

said, although he was not prepared to make the statement positively, he believed that the arrangement by which the Australian packets touched at King George's Sound was made for the convenience of Western Australia. It was undestood that, in the case of the first set of mails sent out in the Australian, some of the addresses had been totally erased, and he begged to ask whether the letters had been injured to any great extent in this respect?

VISCOUNT CANNING

said, he believed that the portion of the mails which had suffered most were the bags for Melbourne. On their return to London those bags were opened, and the letters dried—an operation which, of course, occupied considerable time. They were then repacked in boxes—such of them, at least, as had their directions still legible—and were sent, as he had stated, by the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamers to Alexandria, and thence overland to Suez. There were, however, some letters—he believed between sixty and seventy—the addresses of which had been so entirely obliterated that it was found quite impossible to forward them to their destination. Under these circumstances they were dealt with as letters were usually dealt with the addresses of which were illegible; that is, they were sent to the Dead Letter Office. About one half of them had since been reclaimed by the persons who wrote them; the remains of about thirty more—he could hardly call them letters, for they were mere scraps of paper—were still at the Dead Letter Office.

LORD WHARNCLIFFE

said, he understood that there need be no difficulty now in providing mails for Western Australia, inasmuch as the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamers passed along the coast, and could easily convey them, in addition to their other cargoes. With respect to the speed of the Royal Australian mail-packet Company's steamers, it was quite true that he had not taken into consideration the number of their stoppages; but in the calculation which he made be had certainly left sufficient margin for any ordinary amount of delay from that cause. He wished to know whether the noble Viscount could inform him as to the cause of the late disaster to the Australian steamer?

VISCOUNT CANNING

replied, that he could only partially answer the question of the noble Lord. The business was so thoroughly an Admiralty one, that it had not occurred to him to inform himself of all the details. He could not therefore speak with certainty on the subject, but be might state that he had seen a report from Captain Lowe, Admiralty surveyor at Plymouth, to the effect that on examination into the case of the Australian, it appeared that on her second voyage she started with something like 400 tons weight of coals, stores, and cargo beyond what she had carried on her former voyage—which former voyage, although not at the stipulated rate of speed, had been safely, he might even say prosperously, performed; and it was supposed that on the second voyage, this increase of weight being more than the vessel was able to bear, and the weather having been more than usually severe, her joints had opened and let in the water, by which her safety had become risked. This supposition appeared to be borne out by the fact that the vessel had been carefully inspected by the Admiralty surveyor before she started, and found to be all right; and also that as long as she was in smooth water she appeared to be well fastened, and watertight. The only explanation of which the affair seemed susceptible was that which had been suggested by Captain Lowe.