STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH GREAT BRITAIN.

Evening Star, Issue 3286, 1 September 1873, Page 3

STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH GREAT BRITAIN.

Under date Juno 11, the Agent-General, D r Foathcr.ston, replies to the letter of his Honor the Superintendent, urging the establishment of a line of steamers between New Zealand and Groat Britain:—

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of March 15, 1873 (No. 20), enclosing copy of a letter from his Honor tbo Superintendent of Otago, with its enclosure, on on the subject of a line of steamers to New Zealand, via the Cape of Good Hope. I trust that the efforts I have already made in this direction render it unnecessary for me to assure the Government of my hearty cooperation in promoting the establishment of the proposed line of steamers. I regret, however, to say, that from the inquiries T have made, and from the communication I have held with parties most competent to give an opinion on the subject, and also most disposed to take up the project, the scheme appears far more difficult of accomplishment than it was two years ago. An attempt was recently made to float a company for the purpose of running a line of powerful steamers between Liverpool and Melbourne, but it has for the present utterly failed; and it is now argued that if steam communication cannot he made to pay with Victoria, still less will it pay with New Zealand. In this case, however, a very high rate of speed was to be maintained, it being proposed that the voyage should bo performed within forty-two days. During the last two years the price of iron has risen about 100 per cent., and artizans’ wages at least fifty per cent., so that a steamer, say of 3,000 tons, which two years ago would have been built for LBO,OOO, would now cost probably L 120,000 or L 130,000. Then, again, coal has risen fifty per cent., and it seems very doubtful whether arty material reduction can be expected either in the price of iron and fuel, or in wages. The steamer Great Britain, which has been running so many years between Melbourne and Liverpool, which has been a favorite vessel, and has generally had a full complement, both of passengers and cargo, has, it is commonly asserted, not paid ; but I believe her consumption of fuel is very great. A steamer of 3,000 tons would require to have at least 800 emigrants guaranteed for each voyage. The average number of saloon passengers by the Great Britain has been, I believe, about seventy. Messrs Bright Brothers, when I was negotiating with them to send her to Otago, told me that they could not calculate upon more than half that number for New Zealand, and the calculation seemed based upon facts which there was no gainsaying. It would be extremely difficult for the Government to guarantee anything like the number of emigrants above stated, for the emigrants, as I have often pointed out, require to be sent, not as in the Australian Colonies to one port, but to some five or six. You cannot keep a large number of emigrants in reserve ; you mud send them off as soon as they ai e ready, or you lose them altogether. The average voyage of the Great Britain to Melbourne has been about sixty-three days. _ It would scarcely be safe to calculate on its being made in less than sixty-five days to New Zealand. The average voyage of some twenty of the emigrant ships despatched last year was ninety days. It may be questioned, whether by shortening the voyage by twenty-five days, you would in any material degree stimulate or increase emigration of the laboring class. In thus pointing out some of the difficulties which at present stand in the way of the proposed scheme, it is very far from my intention to throw cold water upon it; but what I really wish to impress upon the Government is the necessity, in my opinion, of giving a moderate subsidy for the fust few years. Three years ago, Mr Galbraith thought a subsidy of L 50,000 a-year would be necessary. Mr E. B. Cargill appears, from the conversation I have had with him, to have arrived at the same conclusion as I have.