The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas, et Prevalebit. SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1882. Direct Steam Service.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 701, 29 July 1882, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas, et Prevalebit. SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1882. Direct Steam Service.

TOWN EDITION. [-Issued ai 420 p. m. i

Sir F. Dillon Bell’s lengthy despatch relative to the establishment of a direct steam service with England, and which is evidently got up with extreme care, has now been laid on the table of the House. From it we find that, aided by the best advice of the most influential ship-owners, and directors of shipping and steam companies in the Old Country, Sir Dillon has been aide to collect a mass of information bearing upon the subject. He has divided his despatch into two distinct heads, viz. : (1) a fast four-weekly mail service ; and (2) a purely mercantile steam service. For the purposes of this classification, he has considered the postal service as the main object of the direct steam

service with England, and deals with it thus;—The mail service, he thinks, would have to be carried on by means of ships, built in the latest style as regards design and size, and capable of' steaming an average of thirteen and a half knots throughout the voyage, and the mercantile ships should be constructed with a view to their carrying capacity, rather than to their rate of speed. The mercantile line he contemplates, should be arranged, as a ten or ten and a half knot service, the ships to average about 5,200 tons, gross burthen. He then goes into details as regards cost of construction, passengers and freight of both classes, and the probable revenue which is likely to be derived from both. Sir Dillon then proceeds to draw his conclusions, after careful analysis, and we must say they carry great weight with them, because they point out very forcibly the difference in the cost of a 1 purely postal system and a mercantlie one. The- great difference which he points out, is, that each of the steamers for the postal service will cost from to -£5 0 >* 000 tnore to build, would burn ,£45,000 worth more coal during the year, entailing a capital in the first instance, of £500,000, and cost ,£55,000 for Canal dues, while, on the other hand, their profits might be perhaps, LSo.ooo more, from passage money. The working expenses, too, are greater in the postal service by at least Li,500 per annum, and from careful calculations,, arrived at after the minutest regard to details, he considers that a fast postal service would require a capital of L 300,000 more than the mercantile service. Assuming the capital required for working a mercantile service to be L 500,000, he considers that the fast postal service would require LBoo,ooo, and although the latter would earn perhaps as much as L360,q»0 a year, the working expenses connected with it would be so great that an annual subsidy of Li 00,000 would be required to make the service remunerative to shareholders. On the other hand the mercantile service, though only earning J. 285,000, would be able to show a probable profit of LSsjooo a year., and with a subsidy of only about Lio,ooo a year, would be sufficient to allow a dividend of seven and a halt per cent. to. investors. Now that the frozen meat trade with New Zealand may be said to be fairly established, we have no hesitation in stating that a .direct mercantile service with ships steaming ten and a half knots would prove a splendid speculation, and would be of the utmost benefit to the colony. The other service is, of course, fully ten years before its time, and there is nothing to warrant the colony in such an expenditure as £IOO,OOO per annum as a subsidy for a fast mail service under existing circumstances. The ’Frisco mail contract expires in November, 1883, and the public are naturally anxious to know what the views of the Government are respecting their future arrangements for the carrying of the ocean-going mails. In view of the fact that the frozen meat trade will become one of our must important inausiuco .. ~ not but express the hope that the contract with the Royal Pacific Mail Steam Shipping Company will not be renewed, but that direct steam communication with England from these shores will take its place.