THE Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1973, 1 September 1869, Page 2

THE Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1869.

Notwithstanding the great advantages that would be derived from the transmission of the European Mails by way of San Francisco, so far as gaining time is concerned, there is hardly a likelihood of that route being adopted for some years to come. The new contract entered into by the British Government with the P. and 0. Company for postal communication with Australia, seems to present a barrier to the new route across North America that will not be easily removed. Were it possible to find a company willing to undertake the contract, no doubt the other Australasian Colonies would bo too keenly alive to their own interests not to contribute a fair share towards the cost. But, unfortunately, the expense of the service would be too great to render it probable that any available offer will be made. The report on the New Zealand Postal Service, alluding to the cessation of the

Panama Service, Bays: —“ After a “ period of two years and a half, during “ which the Panama, New Zealand, “ and Australian Royal Mail Company “ performed, with considerable regu- “ larity, the important service between “ Panama and New Zealand, the Coni- “ pany, through adverse circumstances, “ was compelled to give notice, in “ December last, that the Rakaia, “ which had then just left Wellington “ for Panama, would be the last boat “ despatched under their contract, and “ that the service would cease with the “ mails which would arrive from Eng- <£ land in February last. The stoppage “ of this important service is not in “ any way attributable to deficiency in “ the arrangements of the Company ; “ but is entirely owing to the unre- “ munerative nature of the service “ itself.” Precisely the same difficulty lies in the way of the transmission of mails via San Francisco. In order to bring the cost of a Postal Service within the means of the Colonies to support, there must be such an addition to the traffic on the Pacific as to render it worth a company’s while to run steamers of great power on the route. Unfortunately, there is no present prospect of such a development of either goods or passenger traffic. There are plenty of groups of islands, thickly populated, but the inhabitants are not sufficiently advanced in wealth and civilisation to render their commerce profitable, and even if it were, the direct route between New Zealand and San Francisco is over a long ocean tract that will not permit of deviation where time is a consideration. Nor is the present trade between New Zealand and the United States of sufficient magnitude te lead to any immediate change in the means of communication. Could such a change in the cost of transit be made as to render it worth whilefor passengers to adopt the Pacific Railway route, no doubt the saving of time and fatigue would present such inducements as to lead them to choose it in preference to the Suez and Overland route. Between London and Auckland only thirty-four days would be spent on the water, and the remaining five would be occupied in railway travelling,— of all modes of travelling the least fatiguing. It is, therefore, hard to say what may not be attempted by American enterprise. But the policy of the United States has been for some years unfa - ' orable to the development of international communication. The protective system acts as a bar to commerce, and has been especially detrimental to their trade with Australia. “ In 1864,” says an American writer, “ we sent fleets of vessels to Africa, “ Australia, and the La Plata, “ for wool, and imported eighty-eight “ millions of pounds, which was made “ into cloth. Our duties were then but “ three cents a pound on wool, costing “ less than twelve cents, and but six “ cents a pound on wool costing twelve “to twenty-four cents. Since the war, “ although the apparent necessity has “ ceased, the wool growers and manu- “ facturers have combined to raise the “ tax both on wool and woollens, and “ and the duty on all but the very “ coarsest wool for carpets has been ad- •• vanced to an average of fourteen “ cents a pound. This duty is imposed “on an article which cost on an “ average but seventeen cents when “ the advance was made, and which de- “ dined to fourteen cents last autumn.” ... “ Meanwhile our trade with La “ Plata, Southern Africa, and Aus- “ tralia, is broken up. Our iraporta- “ tion of wool falls from 58,000,000 lbs “in 1864 to 23,000,000 in 1868—a de- “ dine almost unprecedented in the “ annals of commerce. Our ships are “ thrown out of employment: for the “ return freight of wool gave them “ two-thirds of their profits, and the “ fordgner cannot buy the outward “ cargo, unless we take his wool in payment.” Such is the effect of the protective system. It prevents free exchange, and presents impediments to free international communication. It is a stumblingblock in the way of steam postal services. The United States is now realising the truth of the folly exposed in Bastiat’s apologue of Stulta and Puera. At immense expense, a railway has been constructed, to cheapen goods so as to develope trade. At each end of it a custom-house is placed to make them dear, and thus to cramp it. Surely no words are needed to show the folly of such a course.