THE NEW MAIL SERVICE.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2390, 29 November 1870, Page 2

THE NEW MAIL SERVICE.

BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPJL (Continued.) Three alternative lines are provided for, one of whies will have to be finally adopted under conditions set forth in the contract, and which the Postmaster-General proposes now to indicate. To all the four linos one feature is common : that the main boat runs from San Francisco to Port Chalmers, calling at Auckland Wellington, and Lyttelton. Lino iNo, 1. —A steamer to leave San Francisco once in every calendar month, commencing on the l(sth of February ne> v t, and to proceed to Port Chalmers, calling at Auckland, Wellington, and Lyttelton ; and to return from Port Chalmers to San Francisco once in every calleiular month, calling at Lyttelton, Wellington, and Auckland. Between San Francisco and Auckland two ports may be selected by Air Neilson, but to be within the Hawain, Society, Navigate •, or Fijian groups. The ports so selected are

to be visited for coaling purposes only, and the e is an express prohibition against any connection being effected between either of the coaling ports, and any port in Now Caledonia or in Australia, Eor this line tho payment is to be L 40.000 for twelve complete services, and any subsidies received from Australia or New Caledonia are to be equally divided between the New Zealand Government and the contractors. Within rix months of the date of the arrival at Wellington of the first contract vessel, the Post-mastcr-Gcneral may give to the contractors notice that he adopts as the alternative of the initiatory line (No. 1) the line described in the contract as Line No. 2. This line is for a service precisely as described under the heading “Line No. I.” But thirteen complete services are to be performed within the year instead of twelve, and the contractors are to establish a branch steamer between Auckland and Sydney, and any other branches they please from New Zealand ports ; but they are not to be at liberty to ran any branch steamers except .from New Zealand ports. For Line No. 2 the payment is to be LOO, 000 for thirteen complete sei • vices, including the branch line ; and all subsidies received, whether from the Australian Colonies or from New Cal donia, are to belong wholly to the New Zealand Government. If within six months of the arrival of the first contract boat at Wellington the Postmaster-General docs not give notice to adopt Line No. 2, the contractors may elect to carry out Line No. 3 or Line No. 4* Line No. 3 is similar to Line No. 1, only that the contractors are to receive the subsidies from the other Colonies less 10 per cent., to he paid to the New Zealand Government. They are to be at liberty to establish branches to any Australian Colony or to New Caledonia from Zealand ; but they are not to run any branch boats except from New Zealand ports. The payment for Line No. 3is to be L 40,000, the contractors receiving all subsidies paid by other Colonies, and retaining amount less 10 per cent., which they are to pay to the New Zealand Government. Line No. 4 is the same as the others in regard to the main boats running to Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, and Port Chalmers ; but the contractors are to be at liberty to run branches from the Fiji Islands to Australia, and to make such arrangements as they please respecting subsidies from colonies other than New Zealand ; the payment for this line to be L 30.000 per annum.

The time in each of the four cases described as the contract time between San Francisco and Auckland is to be twentyfour days, and the contractors are to use all diligence to perform the distance between Auckland and Port Chalmers within 100 hours, subject to a penalty of L2 per hour for unnecessary delay. If the Government adopt Line No. 2, the contract time between San Francisco and Sydney is to bo thirty days ; if the contract tone is exceeded, the contractors are to pay a penalty of L2 per hour for such excess, unless a reasonable cause can be shown for it ; and they arc to receive a bonus of L2 for each hour less than contract time, within which any service is performed between San Francisco and Auckland, or San Francisco and Sydney. The Postmaster-General is to have power to make and to vary time tables. The vessels may be detained twenty-four hours in Sidney; they may also de detained forty-eight hours in San Francisco, whenever it may be necessary so long to await of the arrival there of the mails from Europe. The contract vessels are to be exempt from all port, light, or wharfage dues or charges in New Zealand. On board each vessel first cabin passengers are to be provided, without charge, for a male agent and his assistants. The contractors are to enter into bonds to the amount of L 25,000 for the due performance of their con tract The contractors agree, subjeet to a penalty of LI,OOO per annum, to procure from the United States an exemption from all the charges for mails between San Francisco and London, and between New York and San Francisco, which are now imposed under the convention between the United Statcjj and Great Britain. The contractors also agree to use their best endeavours to secure a concession under which wool the produce of any colony contributing to the mail subsidy and tile fibre of the Phormuim (cnax produced in New Zealand shall be admitted into the Unite I States duty free. These are the principal features of the contract ; some details still have to be settled between the contractors and the Postmaster General. Until it is known what the United States Government may decide to do iu respect to some of the open questions, it may not be desirable that specific offers should be made to the Australian colonies. The contract contains ample provisions for securing payment of subsidies from other colonies. It may be observed that the Post Office Act, No. 2, passed last session, and the terms of the convention proposed to the United States (which Dr Neilson announces that tho authorities of that country have agreed to) have been signally useful in smoothing over one of the most difficult features of the contract: that of dealing with non-subsidising colonies. The Postmaster-General iu accordance with the resolutions of the Assembly, made it a condit on in every case that the rhaiu lire steamers should come on to New Zealan 1, and should call at Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, and Port Chalmers. There was groat difficulty in procuring the consent of the contractor’s representative to the main line boats visiting so many New Zealand ports, and the arrangement in respect to time between Auckland and Port Chalmers, with penalty for delay is the very best that the Postmaster-General could succeed in effecting. The repre eutativo of the contractors declined to make any arrangements as to Napier, and whether the contract vessels will call at that port must depend upon future negotiations, Everyone of the lines will feubstantially comply witli the conditions laid down by the Assembly in the resolutions of last session ; but Lino No. 4, in permitting the diversion of the Australian traffic at the Fiji, will ho least in accordance with the spirit of the resolutions. Lnfortunately it may ho taken for granto l that if the Colony does not adopt Line No. 2, the contractors will adopt line No. 4; they would by it in all probability obtain much larger subsidies from tho Australian colonies than by the New Zealand route. In the case of the other lines, if the vessels call at the Fijis they arc to do so for coaling purposes only. The main steamer is to proceed to New Zealand, and no branches are to be rim except from New Zealand ports. A subsidy of LGO, OilO may seem to bo a large one, and especially so as compared with the amount indicated in the resolutions of the Assembly, care has therefore been taken to give the Assembly time to decide whether the Colony shall adopt line No. 2, or leave the contractors thdr choice between Line No. 3 and Line No, 4, but as the point is certain to be

immediately discuss d, the Postmaster-Gene-ral takes the opp"rtunity of remarking upon it, without, however, committing himself t > a conclusion as to which choice will he recommended to the Assembly. Line No. 2is in effect not widely different from the service conteinplaLd by the resolutions. It is true that the amount named in the ivso lutions is 1.40,000, and that the Assembly understood that subsidies from other colonies would go in reduction of that sum, but it must be remembered that for the 1,60,000 thirteen complete services a year will he secured, and also a branch line to Sydney, while the line for which the Assembly approved of paying forty thou and pounds would have been merely a lino to New Zealand. The Australian Colonics would have had to arrange for branch services, and would have contributed to the line only as far as New Zealand. Under Line No 2, tbo Colony will lie able to offer to lay down the mails in Sydney. If Line No. 2 is adopted, the sixty thousand pounds a year will be reduced by the amount of all subsidies received f”om Australian Colonies ; and if the concession as regards the ' onvention between the United .States and Great Britain bo received (the contractors binding themselves in a penalty of one thousand pounds per year to obtain it), the postage iy England and in Australia would alone amount to a very handsome contribution from the Australian Colonies for the carriage of their mails. In any ease the Australian Colonies should unitedly pay from twenty-five to thirty thousand pounds a year; and supposing the concession above mentioned to be secured, New Zealand woidd save a very large sum per annum in regard to her own mails, lor the Imperial Government would hand over to the Colonies the postages collected on the other side, but which are now detained to defray the charges payable by Great Britain to the United States under the Convention. It must be added that the adoption of Line No. 2, by placing the whole service in the hands of New Zealand, would secure that the traffic between Great Britain and the United States on the one hand, and the Aus-

tralinn Colonies on the other, should permanently pass through New Zealand instead of passing by it. as would be the case were the contractors enabled to adopt Line No. 4, and so to run branch boats from Fiji to Australia. Still further, if the Colony should adopt Line No. 3, not only will it include connection with Sydney from Auckland, but by lines of steamers already existing there would practically be direct communication between Melbourne and the main line at Dunedin, Lyttelton, and Wellington. The Postmas-ter-General believes that the contract times

are such that it would be impossible for the Australian Colonies not to come in, and to contribute fairly in reduction of the L 60,000 subsidy. The contractors have assisted in maturing arrangements by which the journey between -Sail Francisco and New York and from New York to San Francisco

will be performed in live days instead of seven, and a steamer is always to be ready at New York to depart with the mails for ,England as soon as they arrive. The transit from San Francisco to London will then he effected in fifteen days, whilst from Sydney to San Francisco, Dio time will be thirty days. The mails from London to Sydney or Sydney to London would be delivered in forty-five days, and mails to and from Melbourne would be received and delivered in 47 days. Those times indeed would probably be materially reduced, for the contractors state that they would be able to save two days, should it be worth their while to do so.

Supposing New Zealand adopts lino No. 2 the Government would be able to choose under the thirteen services condition either Sydney or Melbourne as the port at which to make the times correspond with those of the boats of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, or the Government would be able to give to either Sydney or Melbourne an , absolute fortnightly service to England. * Whichever of those courses might be adopted it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that there will he a majl service to which public opinion in the Australian Colonics would demand that contribution should be made —whilst it is almost impossible not to conclude that as a passenger route the route would be unequalled. There are many

other considerations to be taken into account in choosing between the services. Line No. 2, with contributions from the other Colonics and with the English postages, which would be set free by the United States foregoing the transit charges, shall not cost much if anymore than L 25,000, whilst under similar circumstances Line No. 4 would cost about the same amount with far less

advantages. Line No 3, with nearly equal advantages, would cost about the same, but with less risk of costing more through the Colonies not contribufing, but the contractors have the option, if line No. 2 is not adopted, of choosing between line No. 3 and line No. 4, so that No. 3 cannot be counted on. It will he for the Assembly tq decide whether line No. 2 involves so much risk as to make it desirable to be prepared for the substitution of line No. 4, which after all would he a very good service. It or any of the other lines would give New Zealaud a service which would cost much less than the Panama service or the Suez service, (with later-colonial and Inter-provincial distributing boats) has cost, while as compared with the other, it would confer immeasureahly greater advantages direct and indirect. The contractors propose to charge LBS for the through passage to England, including railway fare across the American continent, and to leave to each passenger the option of proceeding direct, or of delaying at different nlaqey as long as may be desired. * The Postmaster-General is informed, although it is not a condition of the contract, that a uniform rate to England is to he charged from all parts of New Zealand. Should effect be given to the provision for admission duty free into the United States of New Zealand flax, and of woo], the produce of Now Zealand or of any Colony contributing towards the service—another inducement to the Australian Colonies to contribute will be supplied. It can scarcely be doubted that the of the line will lead to the development of the New Zealand coal fields, in which case it would be no exaggeration to regard the subsidy as being more than recouped to the Colony by the money payments for ica coal, and by the employment of labor ami capital which would he afforded. The time tabic fixed for the commencement of the service is ns follows ;—To leave Port Chalmers, Sydney (if required) and London on the Ist of each month, Auckland outlie 7th, and Sin Francisco on the IGth. This will enable letters despatched from London on t he Ist oi the month to be delivered in Port Chalmers on the 15th, and Sydney on the IGth of the foregoing month. Thera

will be about a fortnight for answering and replies leaving Port Chalmers for Sydney on the Ist will roach Condon on the loth ot the following month ; there giving a com e of about 105 days, or three months and ahalf. The same will apply to answers to letters rentfrom Port Chalmers and Sydney In the ease of Wellington or Auckland, the time hero stated would be reduced by several days. In conclusion, the Postmaster-General would observe that the contract appears to be one of an eminently satislactory natute. It will stand the teat ol mooring the requirements of be whole Colony as a first-class mail, passenger, and commercial service, and if tested as regards its c(to ts upon the much disenssid separate interests of the diircicnt parts of the Colon)', the conclusion must he that no service more likely to do justice to those interests could he obtained, even if one could lie devised. The following description of the vessels to be employed is taken from the American Lloyd’s for IS7O : Nebraska. The steamship Nebraska, 2143 tons register, built in ISGo under ofhcial supervision, specially surveyed and classed as extra A 1 in ISGO, built ot oak and liackamaiack on iron frame ; three decks and brains ; 15 feet draught : half brig ringed ; dimensions 370 feet length, breadth oO feet, depth 26 feet beam, engines 81 inch cylinders, stroke of piston 12 feet ; and donhleplanked with four-inch oak; made 154 knots on her trial trip. Nevada—The steamship Nevada was built at the same time as the Nebraska, her tonnage is the same and she is in every respect a similar vessel, except that her cylinder is 4 inches larger. Daeotah— i'he steamship Daeotah, 2153 tons, was built in 1865, and specially surveyed and classed in 1869 as extra AI. She is similar in every respect to the Nebraska. At present she is employed in the trade between New York and tlic West Indies. Moses Taylor—The Moses Taylor is 1354 tons register, was built in 1867, and was surveyed and classed as extra A 1 in 1869.