286 IVHW SOUTH WALES. 



quarters for a cable aci-oss tlie Pacific Ocean to Canada, wliicli will 

 enable Australian messages to pass solely through British territory. At 

 a Conference held at Ottawa in 1894 it was decided, with a view to ascer- 

 tain the cost, to invite tenders for laying a cable by various specified 

 routes between Australia and Vancouver. Several offers were received 

 in response, and the most satisfactory appears to have been from a 

 company or firm to lay the cable and maintain it for 3 years at a cost 

 of £1,500,000, and it is considered by many who strongly advocate 

 this competing line, that a cable tariff of 2s. a Avord — after allowing for 

 the increased business following such a large reduction — would be a 

 payable one. At 2s. a word Pacific cable tariff' would mean a through 

 rate from New South Wales to Great Britain of about 3s. 2d. against 

 4s. lid. now charged, and about 2s. 6d. a word to Canada and the 

 United States, against sums varying from 5s. lid. to 7s. 7d. as now 

 charged. The present position of the matter is that the Secretary of 

 State for the Colonies having recently proposed that a Commission of 

 two approved delegates from Australasia, two from Canada, and two 

 from Great Britain shall meet in London and discuss the whole question 

 in all its bearings, a short Conference at which all the Australasian 

 Colonies were repi*eseuted was held at Sydney in January. It was 

 decided that the Agents-General for New South Wales and Victoria 

 should be nominated for appointment to represent Australasia on the 

 Commission, with instructions to confer on all important points with 

 the Agents-General of the other Colonies. Resolutions were also 

 passed indicating- the route, and the basis on which the cost of the 

 work should be shared. 



The total number of persons employed on 31st December, 1895, in 

 the various branches of the Post and Telegraph Department, exclud- 

 ing mail contractors, was 5,063, and the average annual salary was 

 nearly c€87 per annum. 



Of the 5,063 persons employed (exclusive of mail contractors) on 

 31st December, 1895, there were : 



46 line repairers. 

 432 official post and telegraph masters. 

 1,046 non-official postmasters. 

 502 receiving office keepers. 

 605 operators. 



350 assistants in post offices. 

 356 other emjjloyes. 



An illustration is appended of the capacious and handsome building 

 forming the head office of the Post Office and Telegraph Department. 



317 principal officers and clerks. 

 ISO mail guards and sorters. 

 262 letter carriers. 

 207 junior letter carriers. 

 110 mail boys. 

 546 telegrapli messengers. 

 95 switch attendants. 



