The mission of the delegates was, however, far from fruitless. The fact that the legislature had without complaint paid out considerable sums each year for the maintenance of the service, appeared to the British government to entitle Nova Scotia to liberal treatment, as these payments would not have been demanded if the post office had understood the matter.
The treasury, therefore, decided that so long as the revenue from the inland post office was sufficient to meet the expenditure for the inland communications, no demand for that purpose should be made upon the provincial funds. Should, however, the legislature deem it advisable to add to the lines of communication, the treasury would rely upon the legislature to defray the expenses of such additional communications, so far as these were not covered by the augmented postage receipts.
There was no more than justice in this decision, but the concessions of the treasury did not stop at this point. It also intimated its willingness to allow all the packet or ocean postage collected in the colonies to remain at the disposal of the local government, whenever the imperial act of 1834 should come into operation.
The British government did not desire to force the imperial act upon the colonies, if, as appeared to be the case, there were valid objections to it. It was prepared to consider any amendments which might be proposed to meet those objections. The packet postage, it should be explained, belonged entirely to the British government which provided and paid all the expenses of the packet service, so that the offer to allow the local governments to retain for their own use the packet postage they collected, was a real concession.
FOOTNOTES:
[225] C. O. Rec. (Can. Arch.), N.S., A. 103, p. 134.
[226] See p. 86.
[227] Quebec Gazette, December 13, 1787.
[228] Winslow Papers, 1776-1826 (printed under the auspices of the New Brunswick Historical Society, 1901).
[229] Heriot to Howe, August 30, 1812 (Can. Arch., Br. P.O. Transcripts, III.).