Four firms accordingly came forward, including Elder, Dempster and the
Royal Mail Company, and the offer of the former was provisionally accepted, the decision between Elder, Dempster and discontinuance being left to the Colonial Legislatures. The terms of Elder, Dempster's offer having become known, the Royal Mail Company made further offers, agreeing to accept all the Postmaster- General's conditions, and finally offering to perform a modi- fied service for £75,000 on a ten years' contract. Mr. Lyttelton then declared that the Imperial Government could not be parties to any further competition between the tenderers, but in view of the hostility of the most important Colonies to the acceptance of Elder, Dempster's offer, they had decided to discontinue the contract. The resulting inconvenience is attributed to the desire of the Imperial Government not to thrust a distasteful arrangement on the Colonies, but the Colonial Secretary hopes they will realise that they cannot prescribe the choice of contractors irrespective of the results of competition and the merits of the particular offer made. In other words, the Government take credit to themselves for a policy of backing out which incommodes the public, irritates the Colonies, and fails to satisfy any of the competing firms.
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