FEDERAL MAIL SERVICE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8856, 5 July 1907, Page 2

FEDERAL MAIL SERVICE.

Press Association.—Copyright. Melbourne, July 4. Mr Deakin made a statement in the House that Government had taken steps to get the forfeited mail contract bond converted into cash. New tenders would be called immediately returnable in three months, and would provide a specific time for building steamers, and the penalty for failure to fulfil the contract would be double that in connection with the first contract. July 5. Under the new mail contract a clause will be inserted for a price to take in the ports of all States of the Commonwealth with special mention of Brisbane. In the Senate, on the Address-in-Reply, Government were severely criticised over the mail contract and the naval agreement.

Government are advised that the Commonwealth agent attends the conference in London under the presidency of Mr Lloyd George to discuss the “All Red” mail route. “Antipodean Methods and Eccentricities.” Press Association—Copyright. London, July 4. The Shipping Gazette, referring to the cancellation of the mail contract, says the Commonwealth has made a pretty hash of the business. Whatever one may think of the contractors’ lack of tact, those who in future interest themselves in the carriage of mails and produce will be advantaged by widened knowledge of the methods and eccentricities of Antipodean statesmen.