WELLINGTON AND THE MAIL SERVICE.

Evening Star, Issue 4145, 9 June 1876, Page 2

WELLINGTON AND THE MAIL SERVICE.

[Bt TBLBGfiAPB.)

Wellington, June 8. The * Post’ to-night says—“ We are net surprised to find that our remarks on the folly of compelling the large ocean steamers to distribute the San Francisco mail* along ■ the coast have excited a storm of indignation in Danedin itself. We are glad, however, to see that the papers published in other partf of Otago have the good sense to recognise the absurdity of the present system, and to admit the unsuitability of Port Chblmers as a port of call for eucn steamers as the Australia. This, in faot, is sufficiently proved by the experience of both that vcesu and the Colima, The~‘South* land Tunes’ offers an alternative suggestion in the event of the Coastal Servicii "being continued. Our Invercargill contemporary points out that with so comparatively safe and accessible a harbor is- the - Bluff within a few hours’ run oT Fort r Chalmers the- proper course would. be for th« ocean steamers to be tendered off the . Otago Heads (as wap done necessarily on the occasion of the Australia’s recent departure from that port), and then to iproceed to 'the Bluff, remaining there until the tithe cf leaving, when they could call off/the Heads atr on arrival-end pick up the Danedin mails- and passengers ; thu* Otago would still have their coastal service, while the steamers'wohld ttOtbeWndangered so'seriously. Moreover, as the * Southland , Times ’ points out, the offset of running between Southland and Otago,' provided for the inclusion of .the Bluff in any mail service calling at Pert Chalmers. The plan certainly ought to be adopted if the mail steamers are to continue running down the coast, but it is to be hoped th.it such a ■ costly absurdity will not he tolerated at aU much longer.”

Tke ‘ Post’s ’ opposition to the coastal service leads it to saying most extravagant and unfunded things about this port, as witness the following extract from its issue of the 3rd iust*—“We learn fromthe officeprof the Australia that she was for several hours in a very critical position while aground off Port Chalmers, and the two togs could only succeed in towing her off at the very top of high water. If that had : been passed the Australia would have had to remain ashore over low water, in which case, from the awkward position she was lying, the would have run a great risk of being bsdlywtrainei if not of breaking her hack. With regard to her ‘crossing the bar with-thegreatest . ease,' as telegraphed, it appears that die Was only able to get out at alloy beumtowed as already mentioned, and Captain Cargill declares that he will never again risk his ship in such a dangerous place. If she had been the least degree later on the tide in going iu (as she must had she been any deeper lacbn, instead of being very light), it would have been utterly impracticable to get her off, and she would have remained fixed, with a broken back, a permanent monument of Otago folly and reckless ambition.”