The Evening Star. THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1870.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 94, 28 April 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star. THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1870.

The lesson to be learned from the splendid success of M. Lesseps in piercing the Isthmus of Suez will not be lost on the world. The narrow prejudices of English statesmen, opposed political obstacles to the scheme that might have appalled a bolder spirit ; the sensitiveness of the British nation on anything affecting relations with the Indian Empire, produced a caution amounting to repugnance on the part of capitalists regarding such, an investment ; while the opinion of English engineers, considered to be authority alone for the world, accorded with English feeling, and pronounced against a work to the performance of which the finger of nature distinctly pointed. There is nothing like isuccesa, and M. Lesseps is now enrolled among the great; while the Suez Canal has not only proved that it will be a benefit to commerce, but a commercial success ; and the approving smile of rulers, even of English statesmen, shows that this great enterprise of our age will be no other than beneficial to international relations.

It was only natural that the cutting of the great eastern isthmus should direct attention to that of the west, and that its magnificent success should be taken as an element in the prospectus for cutting through the belt of land dividing the Atlantic from the Pacific waters. It should be to New Zealand a subject of thrilling interest to learn that an expedition has been already sent by the Government of the United States to effect the necessary surveys, and that the people who have built the Pacific Railway with such unprecedented speed and success, will dig the Darien Canal. In commercial importance it will wholly eclipse the Canal of Suez. Free from the intricacies and dangers of the Mediterranean and Red Seas, it will be the "road to the Indies," the dream of Columbus and the early navigators. To Calcutta from London it will shorten the distance by 4,100 miles as compared with the route via the Cape of Good Hope ; compared with that by Cape Horn it will cut off 9,G00 miles ; while the distance from London to Shanghai, in China, will be reduced

one-half. From London N to New Zealand, on the ordinary ship route, namely, by the Gape of GpM Hopfe,! there wilfeyhg a spying; of 5-260 miles,; or almoijf or^thir& of \the entire distance ; ftft: Melbourne :n)eneven, their^ fa^ofita/jCape route would be thrown •into the shade by one past our doors,'effecting a saving of 3,340 miles. N^wiZealand, by her. positioii, bus rftqo.d '"in,,:solitary : isolation-inthe wlJe-Paeific; now that very position is making her the foous of convergence for the greaVstea'm routes,of the future*. T:he San Francisco: route already so .%uspiciduslyropened amid a burst of 'popularity,-'must continue the mail route, i the superior rapidity of railway travelling will leave it that advantage. The Magellan Straits route, if opened, will present many advantages for the great trading steamers; a through route without transhipment at Panama, or delays at the fever stricken islands of the Carribean Sea would present advantages for commerce and travelling, eclipsing every other; and when we observe that all these lines of traffic with Australia must naturally converge at New Zealand, we can almost see in it a requital of Providence for the isolation of the past; and on our heads alone be the blame, if, situated as our city, is, Auckland does not become the Singapore of the Southern seas.