(Continued from part 2)

In ships of the time space had to be provided for the large quantity of fuel needed for the extravagantly coal-eating engines plus space also for the passengers' enormous mountains of luggage. An 1850 list from Thresher & Glenny who were "East India and Colonial Outfitters at the Sign of the Peacock, Strand, next door to Somerset House" gives an indication of just what this could amount to.

Indian Gauze Waistcoats

There are over 100 articles on the list. Those ordered include 48 longcloth shirts and 24 longcloth full front shirts, 24 Indian gauze waistcoats and 18 nightcaps. There are 72 cotton half hose, 12 silk of the same, and another 12 woollen-or just under 100 pairs of socks. Other miscellania included a swinging cot, hair mattress, feather pillow slip, couch or sofa, case of blacking, brushes etc. and tin can for water. No wonder there was no room left for cargo and fares and postal rates were so high!

In the 1850's according to an arrangement between the British and Colonial Governments, the uniform rate for a single letter of 11/2 ounces was 6 pence. Since the British Government bore the expense of carriage it received five sixths of this amount. By 1861 penalties were being imposed for the late arrival of the mails whilst premiums were paid if they were early.

In 1863 a service began which enabled outward going mail from Australia to be sent overland from Marseilles so that it arrived in London six days earlier. Mails were speeded at the other end by sorting them for Australia and New Zealand on board prior to arrival.

The Queensland Government began its own mail route in 1865 via the Torres Straits and Batavia. Then in 1867 the governments of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and New Zealand held conference on the state of steam postal communications with Britain at which they deemed that three alternate routes were necessary. These were to be via Torres Straits, King George's Sound and Panama. The British Government would have born the financial brunt of these suggestions and did not, of course, agree. But during 1869 an overland route via Brindisi in Italy was opened- as a substitute for the port of Marseilles, inoperable because of the Franco-Prussian war. This route was much quicker but more expensive.

Substantial Subsidies

The shipping companies involved with carrying the mails were paid substantial subsidies under the terms of their contracts because of the high running costs and lack of cargo space referred to. By this arrangement -.he colonies paid a half penny per head of population and the English Government paid the rest. in 1860 the subsidy stood at  £185,000 per annum and obviously the British Government was paying most of it. Just how eager they were to save on this expense can be seen by the fiasco which developed over the openIng of the Suez Canal in 1869.

Although passage through the canal cut 41/2 days off the journey, the British Post Office insisted that the P. & 0. Co. fulfil its contract to the letter and continue to take the mails overland from Alexandria to Suez. They claimed the canal was still unreliable, that it would silt up etc. but eventually revealed their true hand when they stipulated the terms of the contract -unless P. & 0. would accept a reduction of £30,000 a year which still had several years to run. The overland route stayed. Even in 1873 when a regular stream of ships was passing steadily through the canal without accident or delay, the Post Office still insisted.

At last, P&O reduced the situation to a farce by dropping the mails at Alexandria, steaming through the Canal, then picking up the same mails at the other end. This continued until 1874 when a revised contract allowed the mails to be carried through - but only on the Company accepting a reduction on the contract of £20,000 annually.

Meanwhile the Australian colonies were fighting it out in a tangle of jealous squabbles over mail routes and terminal ports. New South Wales wanted Sydney as the terminal and Victoria wanted Melbourne and since they could not agree they went their separate ways. Victoria began to agitate for an exclusive service via Ceylon and the Red Sea whilst New South Wales fought earnestly for a neAr service across the Pacific and the United States.

Since neither government could bear the cost of a separate mail contract these plans were pointless, but still neither would agree to a contract which brought the mails via the other's port. The P. & 0. sent out a representative in an effort to reconcile the two governments but he was completely  unsuccessful. The Victorians implied he was both a rogue and a fool if he saw a glimmer of sense in Sydney's view and vice versa.

Victoria at last made an offer which, being the only one possible under the circumstances, was accepted. It was agreed that £90,000 annually should be paid for the same monthly service as had previously received £120,000; but Victoria's most strict stipulation was that the mail should be carried only as far as Melbourne.

Transhipped to Sydney

The natural result was that mails and passengers carried to and from Melbourne had to be trans-shipped there into a branch line steamer provided by P. & 0. to carry them between Melbourne and Sydney. This less than satisfactory 6-year contract was renewed and ran on until a new one was made in 1880.

In 1883 a regular weekly mail service was established between England and Australia. A contract was made with the Orient Steam Navigation Company for a fortnightly service between Southampton and Sydney whilst the P. & 0. Company was contracted for a fortnightly service to Sydney.

A similar contract involving the same companies on an alternate basis, was drawn up in 1888. Only this time, the terminus for both was Adelaide and the mail was carried right through from the colonies to Italy and then on by train to England instead of Melbourne to Colombo and Sydney to Suez, as before. In this way, the time between Southampton and Adelaide was reduced to 32 days.

These arrangements continued under Federation. Then the Imperial Government announced it was unable to co-operate with the Commonwealth Government in establishing a mail service without employing coloured people. This was prohibited in the Commonwealth Posts and Telegraphs Act of 1901.

Contract With PO

The Imperial Government took separate action and suggested that the Commonwealth do the same. Whilst the Imperial Government continued to renew the fortnightly contract with the P.& 0. Company to Adelaide, the Commonwealth entered into several unsatisfactory arrangements until establishing a 10-year service with the Orient line in 1910 at an annual subsidy of £170,000 per annum, and the inclusion of Brisbane.

World War I interrupted the regular passage of the contract steamers, most of which were requisitioned by the British Government. During this period, the contracts were cancelled and the mail sent by non-contract vessels.

In 1921, a mail contract was signed between the Australian Post Office and the Orient Line. The contract and the British Post Office contract with P.& 0. died out during the Second World War. Today the Australian Post Office decides independently which ships it will use to carry the mails depending on their speed, regularity and ports of call.

An officer in the Mail Exchange Branch in each State works up to four weeks ahead to decide on which ships the mails will go. These are published in shipping lists and the ultimate decisions are subject to possible accidents and loss of time. The Mail Exchange officer in Sydney publishes a weekly list of projected sailings and this is generally used as a guide line by the other States.

Mail leaving Melbourne in container ships is bagged, then collected and taken to the A.P.O.'s transport yard in West Melbourne. There the bags are stacked into 20ft. x 8ft. x 8ft. metal containers on an average of 250 bags to each container. Next, the containers are sealed by an A.P.O. representative and taken by trailer to the container terminal, where they are stacked by gantry cranes then run off into the container ship. A container ship usually carries about two containers of mail at a time and more during the Christmas peak.

Container ships to the United Kingdom average about one every week, though not all go direct to the English container terminal at Tilbury. Passenger lines are still used to carry the mails if their schedules prove more satisfactory. In all, about half a million bags of mail to and from all countries are handled annually in the Port of Melbourne.

The procedures may be different, but the shipping officers who meet the mail-carrying ships today on behalf of the Australian Post Office, who supervise the on and off-loading and distribution of mail are in fact performing much the same task as Isaac Nichols was commissioned for in 1809.

Source- Australian Post Office News no 24, July 1974