The Ghostly Head.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1686, 14 July 1875, Page 3

The Ghostly Head.

The best trick the Fakir Oolu has is what he calls Anoctos, that is shewing a decapitated and ghostly head on a swing trsy, while an apparently headless body lies withering below on the floor of the stage in some loose straw. Wellington the Hub of the Universe. The Times in ciisenssjug the new Caiifornian Mail Service notices the remarks of the Sowthern Cross on the matter and condemns the Fiji loop as an unwise interference with the trade of the Auckland Steam Packet Company. The article concludes tbus: "Now it appears tons that the solution of the difficulty lies in a nut she]]. Let the service be so arranged as to make a fork to New Zealand at Honolulu. The steamer to Sydney after transferring mails and passengers at Honolulu would proceed on her voyage calling at Kandavu while the New Zealand vessel should steam direct to Wellington es a central port,whence thetnailsfor North and South couid be distributed within forty-eight hours from .arrival by the really •excellent steamships in our coastal trade. The return voyage would be made in the game way. As a mail service this would serve all parties best. It would moreover leave Auckland to develope the Fiji and Islands trade, and give a chance to the New Zealand Steam Shipping Company to live, ■which would not be the case if running against a subsidised line. We trust the Cross and other New Zealand journals will treat this question from a colonial point of view, and in that case they are pretty certain to support our proposal." The " Tribune's" Opinion of the Mail Service. The Tribune also referring to the remarks of the Cross, saysit is useless rindingfaultwith the place of call, as there must be a port of call there for the purpose of transhipping mails on the inward route to New Zealand, and on the outward route from New South Wales. Kandavu has been named as a port, but not so definitely as to forbid a change if necessary; and, as we have already indicated, Levuka is likely to be fixed upon as more eligible for all purposes of the service. So much for what the Cross considers the first error. Begarding the second we have also given an explanation. It amounts to this, that' the coastal arrangement is no essential part of the contract ; that it does not cost the Government £150,000, it being understood that the amount of contract would have been very much what it ia if the steamers had merely called at Auckland ; but that, as a matter of fact, contractors ■wished for a concession of this traffic along the New Zealand coast, in the belief that it ■would be profitable to them, and as it promised to ensure more regxilarity in the delivery of mails than otherwise would be the case, the proposal was readily agreed to, and made part of the contract.