REPORT OF THE PROCEEDED AND DEBATES OF THE CONFERENCE HELD IN BRISBANE, MARCH, 1893.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL CHAMBER, QUEENSLAND. MONDAY, 20 MABOH, 1893 Tlie Conference met at 10 a.m., and the undermentioned gentlemen, representing the Colonies herein named, were present: — New South Wales : The Hon. John Kidju, M.L.A., Postmaster-General. S. H. Lambton, Esq., Deputy Postmaster-General. P. B. "Walker, Esq., Secretary Telegraph Service. Victoria: The Hon. Agar Wynne, M.L.C., Postmaster-General. James Smibert, Esq., Deputy Postmaster-General. South Australia: Charles Todd, Esq., C.M.G., M.A., E.R.S., Postmaster-General and Superintendent of Telegraphs. Western Australia : Richard A. Sholl, Esq., Postmaster-General. Tasmania : The Hon. Agar Wynne, M.L.0., Acting for Postmaster-General, Tasmania. Robert Henry, Esq., Superintendent of Telegraphs. Henry BojfES, Esq., Secretary to the Post Office. New Zealand: The Hon. J. G. Ward, M.H.R., Postmaster-General and Commissioner of Telegraphs. 0. Lemon, Esq., Ph.D., Superintendent of Telegraphs. Queensland: The Hon. Theodore Unmack, M.L.A., Minister- for Railways and Postmaster-General. John McDonnell, Esq., Under Secretary to the Post and Telegraph Department and Superintendent of Telegraphs. APPOINTMENT OP PRESIDENT. The Hon. J. KIDD (N.S.W.) moved— " That the Hon. T. Unmade take the chair as President of this Conference." The Hon. A. WYNNE (V.) seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. The PRESIDENT said : Gentlemen, —I desire to thank you for the honour you have paid to the colony of Queensland in electing me as President of this Conference. I heartily appreciate the honourable position you have placed me in ; but at the same time I know that its duties will be comparatively light, because you are one and all acquainted with the business that is to come before us, and with the procedure customary at these Conferences, and I feel that I can depend upon your generosity and kindness to overlook any shortcomings on my part in conducting the business. I desire to take advantage of this opportunity to give you a hearty welcome to Queensland. This is the first Intercolonial Postal Conference held in Queensland, and I am aware that many of you have come to us at this time of the year with most erroneous ideas regarding our climate, but I trust that your present visit will remove those erroneous impressions, and that your experience will be such as to induce you to visit us again on some future occasion at an early date. I hope that you will be pleased with your visit before you leave our shores. When I was at Hobart twelve months ago, and proposed that we should hold the next Conference at Brisbane, I certainly had no idea that we should have been afflicted with a calamity which is second to none that has ever befallen any part of Australia. Though we have suffered greatly by that calamity, I feel that I ought, in the first instance, to offer a few remarks of sympathy to the sister colony of New South Wales and those who have recently suffered by the floods in that colony. I can assure them of the most hearty sympathy of the people of Queensland, and say that although we have suffered severely, yet the Mayor of Brisbane has telegraphed to Maitland asking if any assistance is required, and if help should be needed, I am sure there are those in this colony who, if they have it to spare, will be glad to render assistance. (Hear, hear!) Seeing that all the colonies are represented on this occasion, I should be wanting in my duty —indeed, I should be doing violence to my own feelings —if I did not embrace the opportunity to tender to you, and through you to the people of the colonies you represent, our most hearty, earnest, and sincere thanks for the sympathy and help which have been extended to us in our misfortune. Though the question is entirely outside the business for which we have assembled, lam sure