The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, MAY 23 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3090, 23 May 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, MAY 23 1881.

The advisabiHty>f establishing direct soam communication with England has once more been revived. Mr McKerras, in the DunediG Chamber of Commerce, boldly proposed that on the termination of the Pacific mail contract Port Chalmers should be made the first port of call, and the last of departure, for a direct steam service to Great Britain. Lyttelton and Wellington, he proposed, should participatein the good thingssuch a se-vice might offer, but Auckland was to be left out in the cold. Following Mr McKerras, Mr Wilison, the chairman of the Christchurch Chamber of Commerce, made the following remarks in reference to this subject:—Those who have remarked the energy and enterprise at all times exhibited by the directors of the Union Steamship Company—how they have gradually, year by year, increased the sise and power of the steamers, forming their fleet until they have provided this colony with vessels superior to any in the colonial local trades, we would be quite prepared to learn that that company has agreed to establish such a line suggested, with a capital increased in proportion to the l?rger demand made upon it. The proposal of Mr McKerras does not appear to embrace the requirements and necessities of Auckland, while suggesting the cancelling of the present subsidy to the San Francisco line. Port Chalmers, Lyttelton, and Wellington alone receive" his attention. In these times, and in the face of the powerful steamships running in the Peninsular and Oriental, Orient, and other lines where also there are in course of construction in various parts of the United Kingdom steam vessels aggregating 65,000 tons, it is difficult to believe that New Zealand would rest satisfied with a subsidised line of steamers doing the passage in not less than fifty days. What further length of time might be occupied on the voyage the proposal does not state. The suggestion that a Government guarantee of" 6 per cent, interest, or an annual Government subsidy of £30.000 for a like number of years, would doubtless be very acceptable to any company proposing to establish a monthly line to England, but thpre is a well-grounded opinion abroad that the days of subsidies are past, and that a subsidy unduly handicaps one steam line against other enterprising competitors. Consequently, when the San Francisco mail contract expires, it is very possible tbat the colony will not offer any subsidy for the conveyance of mails, but will rely on ordinary commercial competition for the due performance of the work required, payment being apportioned to results, including quickness of passage and number of letters carried. Id the event of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, or any other company with large ocean-going steamers, deciding to run their boats on to New Zealand from Australian ports, it is possible that they might fear to trust their costly ships to any ports in New Zealand, other than Lyttelton, Wellington, or Auckland. In seven years the Panama Canal will probably be available as the direct route to New Zealand from Great Britain, in which case the importance of Auckland as a large emporium for the trade of the South Pacific could not be denied. In connection with the difficulty of construction of this route it must be remembered that the length of the Panama Canal is about 46 English miles, while that of the Suez Canal is about 106 miles.