THE OCEAN MAIL SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume LXII, Issue 128, 26 November 1901, Page 6

THE OCEAN MAIL SERVICE

K< WHAT THE FEDERAL ■'OFFER MEANS. The explanation of the cabled message ..from Melbourne with regard to New Zealand participating in the Federal mail .service via Suez, in the event of the San Francisco contract not being renewed, is that last month our Postmaster-General enquired whether in the event of this 'colony desiring to make full use of .the Federal service it would be permitted to do so, on paying for iWen a population basis instead of at the existing poundage rate. The reply was in the affirmative. The costs, calculated on the existing poundage rate, would amount to £20,383 per annum ; whereas -the cost on a population basis would be £12,306 — a saving of £8077 ; but, of course, there are also railage charges acsross Australia and again across Europe from Brindisi or Naples, as the case may be. A table prepared when Parliament was pitting gave the following det»|ils of the cost of a Federal service: — Dr. — Payment to contracting States (population ba.=is), £12,306 ; transit, Sydney to Adeiaide, £2,220 ;_ transit through Italy and France, £2.936 ; intercolonial service, ■ n'iy £10,000 ; interprovincial service, special trains, etc., £5,000; total cost, £32,462. Cr.-^Estimated postages, £10,788; from London Post Office— transit of inward mails, Sydney to New Zealand. £2,257; total -receipts, £13,045. Kefc cost, £19,417. This estimate presupposes that the San Francisco service may not be renewed, that there may be no Vancouver service. . and that the intercolonial connecting Federal sei*vice will be fortnightly.. The payment to the contracting States is on population basis— as the cost of the service is shared by the States on such a basif*. The payment would cover the full use of the weekly service.