POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS.

Colonist, Volume V, Issue 470, 25 April 1862, Page 2

POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS.

For the present we are sorry to announce that the arrangement for the mail service between Dunedin and Melbourne has fallen through. Only one tender was received for the service, and that was considered by the Provincial authorities too high for them to take the responsibility of accepting it. It may be remembered that the advertisement simply called for tenders for a steamer to carry the Otago mails on the 18th of every month to Melbourne. But since tenders for this service were invited, our readers are aware that it has been decided to place the arrangements for the carriage of the mail on a more complete footing than the mere arrangement of a steamec to carry the home mails would effect. The plan proposed is one that will serve not only the province of Otago, but the whole colony. In brief, the arrangement which it is desired to complete is to supersede the present contract of bringing down the mails which the contractors can throw up at pleasure, by one which they will be bound to carryout under pain of heavy penalties. The calling in at the Bluff and the carriage of the mails for the Northern Provinces, are also features which it is proposed to incorporate into the new arrangement.

Mr. Crosbie Ward, it may be remembered, desired to make the arrangements on behalf of the General Government, but the Provincial authorities very properly objected to relinquish the control of the service, which would so materially affect the interest of the province. Mr. Ward then agreed to leave the entering into the contract to the Provincial Government, but undertook to be present at the time the tenders were to be opened, to arrange for the payment by the General Government of the extra expense to which Otago would be put by framing the contract, so as to meet the purposes of the other provinces. On the 7th the tenders were to be opened, and in anticipation of the modifications which would be required, Mr. Black wood, of the firm of M'Meckanand Blackwood, owners of the Aldinga and Omeo, came down from Melbourne specially to endeavor to arrange them, supposing their tender were to be accepted. As we have said, there waa only ono tender sent in, and that was much higher than the Provincial Government contemplated. It now remained to see whether the tenderers, the firm of Messrs. M'Meckan and Blackwood, would be more reasonable in their demands for a thoroughly efficient service up and down, and including the carriage of the mails for the other provinces. This arrangement would require the apportionment of the expense between the province of Otago and the other provinces, and which Mr. Ward undertook to do. His absence left the Provincial Government in a complete fix, inasmuch as supposing it undertook the responsibility of making the arrangement and incurring largely increased expenses to serve the other provinces, Mr. Ward would still be at liberty to repudiate the agreement entirely, or to acquisce in it only aa far as suited his purpose. A meeting of the Executive was called to take the matter into consideration, when it was decided that as the tender put in was higher than WBB anticipated, and as Mr. Crosbie Ward had not fulfilled his engagement of being present at the opening of the tenders, to postpone the further consideration of the matter until the meeting of the Council, which takes place in the course of a few days. Mr. Blackwood therefore returned to Melbourne yesterday by the Aldinga without concluding any arrangement, and with the satisfaction of knowing that he had made an entirely useless journey. We believe that it was with great reluctance that the Executive decided on bringing the negociation to so abrupt a conclusion, especially taking into account Mr. Blackwood's special journey, and that the firm to which this gentleman belongs has for a long while been the means of mail communication between Dunedin and Melbourne without receiving any adequate compeasation for it. Still

there was no other course open ; Mr. Ward by his strange absence after his express promise to the contrary, placed the Provincial Council in a position of great difficulty. If it had nego'iated an arrangement which did not include the other provinces it would have been considered a breach of faith on his part, whilst if it had airanged on behalf of the other provinces, Mr. Ward, as we have said, mij»ht have repudiated the arrangement. Mr. Ward's absence was the more strange that he had arrived back from Sydney, and was in Melbourne when the Aldinga lnVt left that place. Although the delay thus occasioned is much to be deplored, we by no means consider that the proposal to remodel the service, or, rather, to establish a fresh one, on an efficient basis, is at an end.. Wo trust that the Council will immediately, on its meeting, give the matter serious consideration, and empower the Executive to conclude an arrangement. We believe Mr. Black wood has left with his agents ample authority to treat on behalf of his firm.