RESULTS OF POST OFFICE REFORM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1361, 18 February 1865, Page 2

RESULTS OF POST OFFICE REFORM.

{From the Edinburgh Review.*) THE PACKET BEBVICE. The packet service of Great , magnitude, its great cost, and the P° flf much which it sometimes excites, is a ent t0 importance. Formerly correspondence Qrdi most distant parts of the world by' lin ,j er an private merchant vessels, which received, u . Act of Parliament, one penny per letter, while, in addition to these modes of communication, ment employed sailing packets to rua **os g the narrow seas, and to the American provinces. sequently steam vessels were employed I ca^ on<l mails to Ireland and the other British lsUnds, an to the neighbouring continental ports. JBU, there was much passenger and mercantile traffic on most of these routes, the service was undertaken by contractors, at a moderate cost. Nearly thirty years ago, however, the opening of the passage 10 India through Egypt and the Red Sea on the one hand, and the successful crossing of tne Atlantic by steam vessels on the other, rendered a change of system necessary. For political and commercial reasons, rapid communication both with India and America was indispensable ; but at that time the passenger and goods traffic was not sufficient to induce capitalists to run swift and punctual steamers without a large subsidy from Government; and consequently, arrangements were made with the Peninsular and Oriental Company to undertake the Indian service (which has since been extended to China and Australia), and'with the Cunard Company for the North American mails. The duty has been performed by these companies with great regularity and safety, though at a high charge. The carriage of the West Indian mails was entrusted to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. The frequency of these dispatches lias been from time to time increased, and packets have been put on to other ports. Indeed, no expense has been spared to render the service efficient. Rapid and frequent communication was studied, quite irrespective of a pecuniary return for the outlay; consequently the expenditure for the packet service rose to nearly a million sterling, enormously exceeding the whole of the sea-postage of the letters carried. | Thus, in 1859, the packets to Spain and Portugal (recently discontinued) occasioned a net loss of ! £17,500; those to the west coast of Africa, £26,000; to the Cape of Good Hope, £24,900; to North America, £79,000; to Australia, £68,000; and to the East Indies, £84,000; while the cost of the packets to the West Indies and South America exceedsd the sea-postage of all the letters they conveyed, by the enormous sum of £215,000. This vast j outlay was made, most of it, behind the back of the House of Commons; for the contracts were entered into by the Treasury, so that the House could not, without inflicting severe hardships on the contractors, refuse to adopt them after the parties had commenced the service.

But the evils of this system rose to a climax under the Derby Administration in 1858. Long before that time the traffic to North America had grown so large that the subsidy ceased to be necessary to induce capitalists to run first-class steamers with great frequency and regularity to the ports of that country ; and the vessels of the wealthy and powerful Liverpool and Philadelphia Steam Navigation Company had been for years plying weekly from Liverpool to New York, in rivalry with the Cunard line, which they almost equalled in speed and punctuality. The Treasury had given a pledge to this company, and to the Canadian Government, which itself had subsidised a line of steamers, that no further contracts should be made without the matter being put up to public competition. The term of the Cunard contract was then about to expire, and there is little doubt but that this and the rival company would have agreed to carry the mails for the sea postage, and thus a great saving would have been effected. No sooner, however, had Lord Derby accepted office than, without any notification to the public, the Treasury renewed the Cunard contract for seven years, and made the famous arrangements with an embryo company to run vessels monthly from Galway to New York, touching at St. John's, Newfoundland. The public are tired of the discussions arising out of this transaction ; suffice it to say that the undertaking has been in every ser.se a complete failure. The vessels have seldom kept their time, and the contract has been repeatedly suspended at the request of the company, which was not able to perform the service, Government, in its extreme leniency, not having taken advantage of the numerous opportunities for declaring the agreement at an end afforded by the repeated non-fulfilment of stipulations. So far from being expedited, letters sent by these boats have often reached their destination later than if they had been dispatched by the next succeeding Cunard vessels. In short, the scheme has been unprofitable to the shareholders, costly and troublesome to Government, and has produced no benefit to any human being. Each letter, the whole postage of which was a shilling, part of which had to be handed to the United States, cost our Government six shillings. Indeed, that a communication once a month to a country to which there were already dispatches several times a week, could be of no practical value to correspondents, would seem to be a self-evident proposition. About as reasonable would it be to put on an extra mail train weekly between London and Scotland. Out of evil, however, came good, for the discussions on these proceedings of Lord Derby's administration caused the removal of the management of the packet service from the Admiralty to the Post Office; since which a course of retrenchment has been entered upon that, without any serious diminution of public accommodation, is greatly lessening the charge on the ■revenue.

As the term of each contract expires, means are taken to'admit into the field as many competitors i for the service as possible. For this object the forms of tenders are framed with as few restrictions as may be—admitting of different rates of speed, different stoppages, &c. —so that the utility of the vessels for mercantile purposes may not be impaired ' more than is absolutely necessary. Tenders are invited in any form convenient to the contractors ; and accordingly it is often discovered that, by some i comparatively unimportant modification in the stipulations, considerable saving can be effected. Thus, when the contract for the service to the Cape j of Good Hope was renewed a short time ago, it was found that by omitting the calling at Ascension on the outward voyage—a matter of very little imj portance—;a sum of £8000 per year, or more than one-third of the whole subsidy, was saved. It is i usual now to insert a clause making the agreement terminable on a six months' notice. By the original contract with the Peninsular and Oriental Company the service to Egypt and Aden, I and thence on to Bombay and Calcutta, was in alteri nate weeks; but in 1857, before the management of | the packet service was transferred from the AdmiI ralty, an arrangemeut was made with that company to utilise some duplicate vessels which the great increase of their traffic had caused them to run between Malta and Alexandria, and between Suez and Aden; so that by merely putting on an additional steamer between Marseilles and Malta, a weekly service was established as far as Aden, whence vessels were arranged to run to Calcutta and to Bombay on the alternate weeks. And as Calcutta correspondence is sent by the boats to Bombay, and thence overland, the former city and its side of India has the advantage ot weekly communication with Europe. The cost of the improvement has been very small. A French line of steamerß, running alternately with the English vessels, has recently been established to India and China via Egypt; by these vessels British mails are now dispatched. The charge on the revenue of this country has also been diminished by causing the colonies to bear their share of the cost. It is no more just that the inhabitants of the mother country should be taxed for the benefit of the colonists than that imposts should be laid upon the latter by England. As the steam communication is of equal benefit to both parties, it is reasonable that the expense should be divided between them.

The burden of the packet service has been lightened also l>y raising the rates charged upon letters carried very long distances. This course, indeed, seems at first sight to be opposed to one of the main principles on which the reformation of our postal system has been conducted—the reduction of postage. It would, however, be unjust to relieve a class of persons from the cost of conveying their letters by means of taxing others, and this is the result of carrying on an unremunerative service where the loss might be avoided or lessened by higher rates. But it may be said that low rates of postage cause increase of correspondence, and vice versa, —a proposition, the soundness of which seems to be proved by the enormous increase of letters in England caused by the establishment of the penny rate. Hut, like all other principles, this has its limits ; and experience proves that, where the interval between the dispatch of a letter and the receipt of the answer is long, low rates do not tend much to increase correspondence. Thus, when the charge to Australia was reduced from one shilling to sixpence, tut few more letters were posted than before; but; wlien the improved packet service was introduced, greatly diminishing the time of a letter's

transit, an important accession to the correßp on dence was obtained Whence it appears that thl wants of correspondents are sometime better met bv increasing the speed and frequency of the mails than by reducing the charges. Acting upon this p r j n ciple, the packet postage to the Cape of Good Hone to the West coast of Africa, and the West Indies' has been within the last two years raised from sixpence to one shilling, with the effect of diminishing the letters but very slightly, and consequently nearly doubling the productiveness of the service Concurrently with this change, the ship-letterl postage watf" reduced to fourpence; so that the poorer classes, to whom great swiftness and punctuality in the transit of letters is of lesß importance tVn a low rate of charge, are accommodated This change seems to have given rise to no dissatisfaction, while the benefit, to the revenue is signal. In 1862 the service to the Cape of Good Hope cost £37,000, and the produce was £11,000 only, leaving a loss of -£26,000, £20,00 of which was borne by this country. By alterations made in the requirements of the contract, the expenditure has been reduced to less than £20,000, and the increase in the rate of postage has raised the receipts to nearly that sum, so that the service is now almost self-supporting. The | ackets to Rio Janeiro, Monte Video, and Buenos Ayres also produce nearly as much as they cost. Similar changes in the West Indian packets and postage have reduced the loss from £194,000 in 1862, to £115,000 in 1863, whereof £37,500 will be borne by the colonies, which pay less than half of the amount, because the packets perform duties in which the West Indian colonies are not interested. As we have seen at the Cape, the enhancement of the postage has but little reduced the West Indian packet letters, while a similar advantage has been given to correspondence by private ships. The postage to Australia has in like manner just been raised from sixpence to one shilling.

New Zealand is establishing a packet service to Panama, whence the mails will be conveyed across the Isthmus to the West Indian steamers On board most packets the letters are sorted, ready for dispatch when landed, by an officer of the Post Office, to whom they are now entrusted, instead of to an Admiralty agent, as formerly. Last year the mail packets ran altogether 3,254,273 miles, costing on an average six shillings and five pence per mile. The greatest distance run was from Southampton to New Zealand, 15,000, and the smallest, from Dover to Calais, twenty-one miles. Recollecting that the rapid growth of the colonies in population, commerce, and wealth must occasion great increase of correspondence, while, on the other hand, the growing use of steam conveyance for passengers and merchandise must enable the mails to be carried more and more cheaply, we may safely conclude that the present heavy loss on the packet service will decrease and ultimately disappear; and the day is, perhaps, not very far distant, when letters to nearly all the colonies will be carried at the penny rate letters, in which case, the corresponding public may be indulged, without injustice to anyone, in very low rate of colonial postage.

A Strange Story.—A truly melodramatic anecdote is in circulation in Paris, which must be accepted without notarial vouching, but still as endorsed by being given to the world by those who are not ordinarily bavards. A Russian nobleman, extremely wealthy, and very reserved and melancholy, has appeared of late in. the best circles, to which he has had most distinguished introducers. The Russian became remarkable for wearing a ring of colossal proportions,nearly covering the entire finger,and of singular appearance, the centre being composed of a substance resembling jet, which was set in gold. No one ventured to ask the character of the ring, or the cause of its being worn, and placing the wearer, a studiously quiet man, in the light of being an eccentric individual. A lady, however, who wae piqued to know something of the matter, at last mustered the requisite courage, and said, "Monsieurevery one is very much struck with the singular character of the ring you wear, and I for one should be delighted to know its origin." The Russian made a nervous twitch with his hand, as though he would like to hide it, while he replied, " Madame, the ring is not a jewel, as you suppose, but a tomb." The curious gathered round, while he continued—"This jet substance is the body of my wife;: she had a horror of a tomb in Russia; she was Italian. I promised her that I would guard her day and night during my life, and she died calmly in the confidence which she reposed in my word, which had never been broken. I took the body of my wife to Germany, where the most able chemist of the day promised to reduce it, by powerful dissolvents and by great compression, to a size which would enable me to wear it as a souvenir. For eight days he laboured almost constantly in my presence, and I saw the dear remains gradually dissolve and intensify till the residue was the compact mass which you see in the ring, which is my dear wife, whom, as I promised, I will never quit day or night during my life."

A Family Sketch at St. Cloud —The Empress was close before us on the upper terrace, which is connected with her apartments by a light iron bridge. This bridge was entirely concealed by a wild vine, whose splendid dark red leaves were the sole thing that reminded me of autumn. The terrace was still covered with the gayest flowers, and orange and pomegranate flowers stood in the open air. In the centre, near a perfect mound of flowers, the Empress was seated in one of those pretty wirework chairs which are so elegantly made- in Paris; in front of her lay, on a similar table, a book and some needlework in a plain basket. The face of the exalted lady was sickly and pale, the noble profile, which appears so classical in marble busts of the Empress, was still the same; and so was the full hair, but in the features there was a sorrow, and the paHor was almost painful to look on. A cheerful contrast was afforded by the youthful Prince; he was playing with a snow white dog, which impudently leaped ou the lap of the Empress! What does a dog know of the etiquette of a court? The Prince is a remarkable handsome boy, tall, and well grown for his age, with curly hair, a round fresh face with clever eyes, and very like one of Raphael's angels; at the same time his manner is admirable, and there is grace in all his movements. He wore the trousers of the corporal's uniform, and over them a blouse, pale yellow with blue embroidery, "which became him well. In the background sat two ladies, in one of whom I recognised Madame Bruat, " Gouvernante des Enfants de France." At this moment the Emperor slowly crossed the iron bridge ; an old white haired gentleman accompanied him, Mocquard, the chief of his Cabinet. The Emperor said a couple of words to him, and then dismissed him with a kindly wave of the hand. Mocquard, after making a deep bow, disappeared. The little Prince ran to meet his father, and the dog barked at the Emperor most improperly. The latter raised his son from the ground, kissed him on the forehead, then took his hand, and walked with him up to his mother. The Empress rose, and the couple walked along the flower beds in conversation, with the prince' behind them. The Emperor was in civilian dress, with hat and gloves and the traditional lilac paletot—a fashion which the King of Holland left him on his visit. The Emperor looked remarkably stout — his face was, as usual, dark and stern, and the lieiuy moustache rendered it still sterner. Still, he seemed to be in good spirits—he often laid his hand on the Prince's curly head, and pointed to several of the flower-pots, as if telling him the names of the plants. Thfe Empress soon seated herself again at her former seat—the Emperor took a chair by her side, and took a portfolio, in which he wrote, though without interrupting his conversation with the Empress. The prince was very busy with his mother's work basket, and listened the while to his parents' conversation. The little Prince suddenly addresses a question to his father, who shakes his head in refusal; but the boy leaps on bis knee, and begs and coaxes, and at last draws his mother into the embrace. At length the Emperor appears to give way, and consents; the Prince, at least, leaps about merrily, the lapdog comes to life again too, and the old gentleman with the white hair appears again in the allee and begins bowing long before their Majesties notice him. Monsieur Mocquard announces that the Ministers are assembled, and awaiting the Emperor. His Majesty rises, kisses son, and seems to repeat his promise; then he offers the Empress his arm, and escorts her over the bridge to her apartments. The Prince remains on the terrace with the two other ladies and the lapdog. while M. Mocquard disappears again on the sid ? allee. On same day I read the following notice in an evening paper; "The Emperor came this afternoon from Sttj/ioua to Paris, in order to inspect the new Boulevard au I rince Eugene; lie was in a light, open plucton, and drove himself. The Prince Imperial was seated oy his side; the first time he has accompanied his Majesty on such a drive. The carriage was without escort there were only two footmen behind. Hi ß ajesty was received with loud shouts on all the oulevards, and the public were delighted at the pleasant salutes which the little Prince offered on aU « was this, then, the little Prince had asked coaxed from his father—at ip with papa,and not, s Usual, m the large stupid, four-horse state coach* surrounded by clattering dragoons and galloping ai ea -de- camp.—Sen tley's Miscellany.