Another Mail Route to England.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 18, 16 March 1870, Page 3

Another Mail Route to England.

[From the Timaru Herald.]

It must be a matter of great regret that Mr Vogel so hastily concluded an arrangement for a mail service to England without issuing tenders for the same by way of San Fraiicisco, or any other route which would give equal advantages with respect to time. The arrangement was made in Sydney, very secretly and very speedily, and there can be no doubt that the qolony has been "taken in." The service is to San Francisco only, and for this a good subsidy is paid, whilst the time given for the performance of it is ridiculously long; and the New Zealand Government has yet to make arrangements for the mails crossing the continent of America by railway, and then for their conveyance from NewYork to Liverpool. So that by the time the whole of the subsidies are agreed upon, we shall be pledged to a very heavy annual payment. But the time—the most important of all—is what is likely to provoke a pretty warm discussion in the House of Representatives at the coming session. The mail is to occupy 48 days in transmission from Auckland to England. Now, it will be remembered that an English company recently submitted an offer to the Government of New South Wales to perform the same service in 40 days for a very small subsidy, or in eight days less time than has been agreed to by Mr Vogel. This is really a most important matter for the Colony ; and now we have an assurance from Otago that a projected company is to run a mail from that Province to England via the Straits of Magellan, in 40 days. We quote from the Otago DaU.ij Times of Thursday last the particulars of the proposed new route:—" We learn that a company is projected to run a line of.mail steamers between Otago and England via the Straits of Magellan. The passage between Otago and the Straits is calculated to occupy 15 days, while the passage from the Straits to England, calling at the River Plate, is estimated at 25 days, the whole distance being thus performed in the short space of 40 days. The steamers for this route from Otago will be of 2000 tons register, and will meet the western South American steamers, of 3000 tons register, in the Straits, where, at a coal depot already established, the mails and passengers will bo transhipped. The 3000-ton steamers now on the line from Valparaiso to Liverpool make the passage on an average in 29 days. If such a route were adopted and subsidised by the Australian and New Zealand Governments, we see no reason why the line should not pay well. In consequence of the prevailing westerly winds, tho steamers would have to stretch away north to about lat. 30 south. We believe that Captain Duncan, of Port Chalmers, has been offered the command of the first steamer of the projected line, and that Captain Thomson, of the William Cugill, now lying at Wellington, has been offered the ch urge of the second vessel."