On the 6th July 1843 the Post Office of New Brunswick was separated from that of Nova Scotia and a large number of services abolished. Following on these drastic measures, the New Brunswick Legislature, in 1844, adopted a joint Address to his Majesty, praying for redress. They asked for a reduction of letter rates, for the abolition of newspaper rates, and for the application of all surplus revenue to the extension of facilities for inter-provincial communication, adding that in consideration of the introduction of these changes the Legislature would guarantee to provide such sums as might from time to time be necessary to defray the expenses of the department. The reply of the Colonial Office was that the prayer of the petition could not be granted, since other
provinces were involved; but that, so long as the province guaranteed the charges, the proposal as regards newspapers, taken by itself, was unobjectionable.
The Home authorities, seeing that in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick the service still showed a deficit year by year, remained indisposed to introduce reduced rates; but when Lord Clanricarde was appointed Postmaster-General there was a change of policy. Lord Clanricarde came to the conclusion that the time was ripe for a reduction of rates in British North America, although he was convinced that such a reduction would entail heavy postal deficits in all the provinces. It would be for the provincial Legislatures to make good these deficits, and he concluded it was therefore expedient that the full control of the service should be handed over to the provincial authorities, subject to certain conditions imposed with the view of preventing friction between the provinces over the transit across the sea-board provinces of mails for or from the interior.
Lord Elgin, Secretary of State for the Colonies, suggested to the Governor-General[122] that one or two members of the Executive Councils of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island should meet at Montreal to discuss the question and mature a plan, which could be submitted to the respective Legislatures, for the assumption by the provinces of the administration of the Post Office. A conference was arranged, and a plan for the establishment of a uniform system throughout the British North American Colonies elaborated.
The conference made clear that in the repeated remonstrances against the "transfer of assumed surplus receipts" to the revenue of the British office there was no desire on the part of the provinces to make the Post Office a source of revenue, or, indeed, to call into question the prudent management of the Imperial Government; but that the remonstrances were prompted by a growing conviction of the great importance of an efficient postal system as a factor in their social and commercial welfare, and as "a means in a new country of extending civilization." The provinces were impressed by the great social and moral benefits which
had followed the introduction of cheap postage in the Mother Country, and were anxious to extend to their own land the benefits of the system, which had already been introduced by their great neighbour. The delegates were satisfied that the most suitable rate would be 3d. the half ounce, uniform, irrespective of distance; but, thinking it likely that some of the provinces might be unwilling entirely to disregard distance, they recommended that an option be suggested for any province that wished so to do to charge double rates for distances greater than 300 miles. They recommended the establishment throughout British North America of a uniform system and rate of postage, with as little local modification as the circumstances of the various provinces might demand. But for two main reasons they were opposed to a common administration: (1) they considered that the control by each province of its postal establishment would be a powerful aid to economy in administration, would prevent imprudent extensions of postal accommodation, and would prevent also any feeling of jealousy between the provinces with regard to the application of the funds of the establishment to the extension of services in the respective provinces; (2) they thought the various provinces would be more likely to accept a system under local control, each province defraying the entire cost of its service, and retaining all postage collected within its limits, whether prepaid or post-paid.[123]
The Home authorities accepted the recommendations of the conference, subject to a few slight modifications in non-essentials, and an Act, passed in 1849, authorized provincial Legislatures to establish posts within their respective territories, but gave them no authority over the posts between the colonies and places abroad.[124]
The transfer of the Post Office systems to the provincial Governments was accomplished in 1851.
Delegates from all the colonies met to consider the arrangements to be made for conducting the office under the new conditions. With the example of England before them, as before the world, the delegates were anxious for a uniform rate, and for a low uniform rate. They realized, however,
that conditions vastly different from those prevailing in England prevailed in British North America. With their great distances and their thinly settled districts, with the rigours of the American climate and the generally poor state of the roads, it could not be anticipated that rates which had been found successful in England, with its comparatively small area and dense population, with its less difficult climate and its better facilities for intercommunication, would prove equally successful. In the end a compromise was adopted—uniformity of rate, but a rate moderately high, viz. 5 cents.[125]