Queensland Parliamentary Debates [Hansard] Legislative Assembly THURSDAY, 21 DECEMBER 1899 Electronic reproduction of original hardcopy liil2 Mownt Morgan, Etc., Bill. [A.SSEMBLY.] Questions. I..EGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. THlJUSDAY, 21 DECEMBER, 1899. The SPEAKER (Hon. Arthur Morgan, War1vick) took the chair at half-past 3 o'clock. PETITION. ENDOWMENT TO LOCAL A t;THOIUTIES. Mr. LORD (Stanley) presented a petition from the Esk Divisional Board praying for the estab­ li"hment of a •ystem of differential endowment to loc:tl authorities. Petition read and received. QUESTIONS. GuL~' MAIL SEI\VICE. Mr. FORSYTH ( Carpentaria) asked the Chief Secretary- Is it the case that the A.U.S.N. Company are now prepared to sign the agreement for three years in con­ nection with the Gulf mail service? The CHIEF SECRETARY (Hon. J. R. Dickwn, Bultrnba) replied- The Post nnd Telegraph Department has reason to believe that the A.U S.K. Company are prepared to sign the agreement for three years in connection with the Gull mail service on certain conditions, Supply. [21 DECEMBli]R.] Supply. 1513 HoN. E. B. FORREST (B,·isbane North) asked was entered into by which his salary was aug. the Chief Secretary, without notice-Has the hon. mented by £100, Owing to the expansion of the gentleman any objection to lay a copy of the department and the large increa~e of work, it contract on the table of the House now? had been found necess .• ry to provide for eighty The CHIEF SECRETARY replied-The additional officers, principally in the junior contract is not signed yet. If it is signed there grades. Two inspectors were provided for at will then be no objection to lay it on the table of salaries of £355 and £300. The necessity for the House. some system of inspection, both of officers and PAPERS. wail lines, had long been felt, and it was considered The following papers, laid upon the table, necessary, in c•rder to obtain incre:tsed efficiency, were ordered to be printed :- that more supervision was absolutely necessary. Further correspondence respecting oversea Under the heading of "Subdivisions," increases mail service to the Gulf ports. were asked for to enable the department to Return to an order, relative to grazing farm overtake necessary work clue to increased activity No. 182, Hug-henden district, made by thronghout the colony. The incr~asecl sum the House, on motion of Mr. Kates, on asked for" Conveyn,nce of mails coastwise,'' in­ the 13t.h instant. cluded the cost of the coastal services by the "Barcoo," etc., £13,000; and £5,000 was a8ked MOUNT MORGAN GAS AND LIGHTING for in connection with the proposed steamer COMPANY, LIMITED, BILL. service with the Gulf ports. It was probable THIRD READING. that in orcler to obtain an efficient service that This Bill was read a third time, and ordered sum would require to be supplemented. Pro­ to be transmitted to the Legislative Council for vision ha<l also been made for the cost of the their concurrence. service to V anconver, amounting to £7,500-a service which he had no doubt the Committee SUPPLY would approve of. The payment to the Com­ RESUMPTION OF COMMITTEE. missioner for Railways for the conveyance of POS'l'ii!ASTER-GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT-POST mails had been increMed from £40, 000 AND TELEGRAPH GE'l<'ICES, to £50,000. Hon. members were aware, no The CHLI<~F SECRETARY (Hon. J. R. doubt, that the Postal Department was the Dickson, Bulirnba) moved that £160.960 be one which paid the Railway Department for granted for post and telegraph offices.· With se.rvices performed. Up to the present time reg-ard to this department, he desired to lay £·!0,000 had been about the annual sum paid for before the Committee certain information of services rendered to the Postal Department by what had transpired during the year, and to the Railway Department, but this :'ear, owing show what these Estimates represented. Owing to the increase of mail matter, and the extended to the retirement of the late Under Secretary, services, the amount was incrPasecl to £50,000. Mr. McDonnell-as from the 6th of November Thot, it should be remembered, was in this case last-Mr. Scntt, previously superintendent of not merely a book entry, but a payment in hard mails and acting Under Secretary, was appointed cash. The increases under the heading of Under Secretary at a salary of £7f>O; Mr. "JYiiscellaneous services" scarcely called for any Bnzacott was promoted to be chief clerk at a rerr.arks. They were clue to expansion generally, salary of £500, and ecveral of the senior offi­ and to the more efficient maintenance of the cers of the dep~rtment obtained the advance­ telegraph and telephone lines of the colony. He ment due to th~no. Before he proceeded further, did not want to load the Committee with too he was justified in saying that he was sure much information. He preferred tn answer the country would recognise the good ser­ questions asked in connection with the working vices rendered to the State by the late U nrler of the department, but what he had said wou!J Secretary, whose retirement had not been due perhaps be sufficient in submitting the vote to in any sense to any want of vigour or the favourable consideration of the Committee. ability on his part, but simply to the fact that Mr. BROWNE (Croydon): It was the usual age came on them all, and that it was deemed thing to ventilate grievances on the first votP, and advisable, as he had arrived at a certain period he wished to refer to the matter of the m~il service of life, and was provided for under the Ci vi! to the Gulf. The Chief Secretary, in reply to a Service Act of 1863, that he should retire from question by the hon. member for Carpentaria, the service. That was the sole reason of his had said there was some sort of a.:reement retirement. Mr. McDonnell had been a very between the Government and the shippitog com­ excellent servant of the State, and had conducted pany, but it had not been signed. Practically the department for very many yen,rs with credit the same thing had been stated rivertwelvemonths to himself and great satisfaction to the Govern­ a!{o. He would like the Committee to under­ ment. Mr. Scott, from his long experience in stand the circumsbwces in which the people the office, would, he had no doubt, be equally of the Gulf had now been left for over eighteen efficient, and the department itself would be months. On the 30th June, 1B98, the contract found to advance with the requirements of the existing betwFen the Government and the country in a most satisfactory manner. It Australasian United Steam Navigation Com­ would be observed that there WE're certain pany expired, and tenders were called at that increases of salaries, in rpgard to which time for a fresh Northern mail service. He £7,G25 was required; £1,675 was asked for came to Brisbane in June, 1898, and he noticed increases to existing salaries. Of that amount, the advertisement calling for the tenders in the £1,170 would go to officers who had less than papers. It was for a service as far as Towns­ £200 per annum. Therefore-he wished to point ville and Cairns, and there was no mention of this out particnlarly-those officers who were the Gulf service. He interviewed and wrote to receiving small remuneration were receiving the Postmaster-General immediately on the most consideration at present. £507 of that matter, and on the 28th July he asked some amount went to officers who were receiving more questions on the subject in the House. The reply than £200. With the exception of those whose sal­ he got then was that there had been tenders aries were below £150, and for whom a general called for a Gulf mail o;ervice, but those sent in increase had been provided, salaries increased did not suit. :Fresh tenders were being called last year had not been augmented. Of that £507, for, and it was expected that the whole matter £100 went to Mr. Hesketh by virtue of a freeh would be fixed up. On the 24th November, agreement entered into during this year. His 1898, a deputation conAistingof t.he then member term of office had expired, and a new agreement for C1>rpentaria1 Mr. Sim, Mr. Rogers, mayor of 1514 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Oroyilon, Alderman Knust, and Mr. Elmslie, had been up North, and he placed a sum of waited upon the Postmaster-General in connec· £50,000 on the Estimates for the pur· tion with the matter. Hon. W. H. Wilson, [4 p.m.] chase of a boat. The difficu!Ly was, theu Pos,master-General, had all sorts of sym­ that while all thau correspondence pathy, and he would like hon. members to take was going on, while the shipping company was notice of what that hon. gentleman said at the defying the Government, and while the Chan1ber time as reported in the Telegraph. He said he- of Commerce people were trying to enforce their Was aware that the Australasian United Steam views, the people of the Gulf were the sufferers. ~avigation Company had a monopoly there. That was They were being ground bttween three mill­ the reason why the Government were trying to get an stones. There was one feasible way out of the lndeJ endent vessel. difficulty, which he had placed on two or three The Telegraph in a leading article the same occasions before the Chief Secretary.