COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL. 



1413 



existed as to the route to be adopted, that round the Cape of Good Hop,- being advo- 

 cated by one party, while the Red Sea route was pressed by another. The difficult!- s 

 in the way, the small importance of the colonies at the time, and the conflicting coun- 

 sels on the subject, relegated the proposal for a time to the region of forgotten projects, 

 and it was many years before the matter was again heard of. In 1-Vl.ruary, 1837, a 

 fortnightly mail was established between Sydney and Port Phillip, the infant settlement 

 there, of course, forming at that time part of the colony of New South Wales. In 

 March, 1846, the subject of steam communication with England was broached in Sydney. 

 The idea was taken up with considerable enthusiasm by many of the principal merchants, 

 who saw at a glance the marked effects such a step could not fail to have on the 

 prosperity of the colony. The question came under the notice of the old Legislative 



Council of that day, and the proposal was received with so 

 much favour that no difficulty was experienced in getting 

 a select Committee appointed to inquire into the conditions 

 under which such an enterprise could be carried into effect. 

 That Committee, after careful deliberation and weighing of 



the evidence available on the 

 subject as to expenditure and 

 probable returns, recommend- 

 ed the establishment of a 

 postal service between Aus- 

 tralia and England, the route 

 suggested being that by way 

 of Singapore. The initiation 

 of this mail service was 

 anxiously looked for by the 

 colonists of the day, whose 

 earnestness in the matter may 

 be gauged by the fact that 

 news at that time occasion- 

 ally took over five months 

 in transit between England 

 and Australia. 



The arrival of the first 

 mail-steamer was a looked- 

 for event both at Melbourne 

 and in Sydney, but it was 

 not until the 23rd of July, 

 1852, that the steamer Clnisan, 

 from Singapore, by the Leeuwin route, arrived in Hobson's Bay, reaching Sydney on the 

 3rd of August following. From this stage, postal progress went on more rapidly. 

 the course of the same year, the Government of New South Wales, from which colon}- . 

 Victoria had by this time separated, offered a bonus, varying according to. certain stipu- 

 lated circumstances, from 6,000 to ^20,000, to any company which might have the enter- 



OATHKKING THE' MAIL FROM THE PILLAR-BOX KS. 



