178
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

either route. The payments are probably not at all heavier than would be the cost of contributions to
the cost of the Suez service alone, which would devolve upon the western Colonies if the expense of
this service were not shared by New South Wales and New Zealand. The above allocation is proposed
as adapted to the existing circumstances of the Colonies, and should be revised at stated intervals.
The bringing into operation of the scheme now proposed need not be deferred until new contracts
are obtained for the Suez service; the plan can be given effect to as soon as the assent of the Imperial
Government is obtained, and in the meantime the Colonial moiety should be contributed in the
proportions above stated.
It is desirable that the attention of the British Post Office should be called to the fact that if the
mails proceeding from Great Britain to the Eastward are in future to be despatched at weekly
intervals, the mails to the West Indies, of which the Panama line is a branch, should also be despatched
at intervals of four weeks instead of a calendar month, in order that the two services may harmonise.
JOHN HALL,
CROSBIE WARD.

QUEENSLAND.

Melbourne, March, 1867.

WE, the representatives of the Government of Queensland at this Conference, and in terms of a
suggestion on the part of the Conference, that each Colony should put forward its own proposal, beg to
offer, for the consideration of the Conference, the two following propositions :-
There are three routes now before the Conference, viz.: that from and to Galle and Melbourne;
that from and to Sydney and New Zealand via Panama; and that from Galle by way of Singapore
and Torres Straits.

The first of our proposals is as follows :-
That the Conference should recommend to all the Colonies represented by it, to subsidize the
whole of these routes, the contribution by each Colony to be in proportion to its population.
In submitting this proposition to the Conference, we do not do so because we think that for
postal purposes these three routes are essential. We regard these lines as not wholly in existence for
postal purposes, and we think them calculated to bring the various Colonies into direct and immediate
communication with every portion of the world. We submit this proposal in the hope that by a
subsidy to the three routes an amicable and united recognition may be made of the claims and interests
of all the Colonies.

In the event of the above suggestion being acceded to, there will be no necessity for considering
our second one; but should the Conference not concur in approval of the three routes, then our second
proposition is as follows:-

The Colony of Queensland, while hitherto paying her full share, at least, for the conveyance of
the mails by King George's Sound and Melbourne, has practically derived little or no benefit from that
line, for it very seldom happens that the incoming mail arrives in Queensland in time to have letters
answered by the outgoing mail of the same month; and in no case does it ever arrive in time for
answers beyond a circuit of a few miles around Brisbane.

We propose, therefore, that the Conference should recommend the establishment of a fortnightly
mail from Galle; one mail to be carried as at present by Adelaide and Melbourne, the other to be con-
veyed by way of Singapore and Torres Straits, the contract amount to be borne by the several Colonies
as follows-one-half on the basis of population, the other half in proportion to the estimated number of
letters forwarded and received by each respective Colony.

This proposal commends itself for various reasons :-
(1.) The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamers already carry the English mails to
Singapore, where there are docks in which these steamers are regularly examined, and
the probability therefore is, that that Company would offer to convey the mails from
Singapore to Australia, by way of Torres Straits, at a less sum than any other Company.
(2.) By the employment of good steamers, bound to a certain average speed, and on the
completion of the improvements now going on in Torres Straits, the mail by that route
ought to be delivered in Melbourne within a very limited period beyond that at which
the present mail arrives, while the public intelligence, as announced by the electric
wire, and much private and business information by the same way, would in connection
with the mail steamer, reach the whole of the Colonies much earlier than by any other
route.
(3.) The line by Torres Straits and Singapore is a smooth water passage, with natural
advantages unknown to any other route, and must, when well opened, be the one pre-
ferred by all passengers proceeding to England.
(4.) Regarding the Torres Strait route as something more than a postal one to Europe, it
opens up to these Colonies a new and safe means of access to India, China, Japan, and
California, in place of the stormy passage by the Leeuin.

Having submitted the two foregoing propositions to the Conference, we would now add that, in
the event of the rejection of both, or in the event of any modification in which we cannot concur, we
reserve to ourselves the right of considering any other proposal that may be submitted, and of assenting
or dissenting therefrom, either in whole or in part.

NEW SOUTH WALES.

FIRST PROPOSITION.

THE Colonies to move the Imperial Government to undertake the payment of a moiety of the lines via
Panama, making an estimate of the contribution at present paid by the free conveyance of the
Australian mails by the West Indian Mail Service.