The Feilding star. Published Daily. FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1894. OCEAN STEAMERS.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 259, 9 March 1894, Page 2

The Feilding star. Published Daily. FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1894. OCEAN STEAMERS.

I - - <^. „ The enterprise of the Huddart Company promises to revolutionize the ocean steam trade. The steamers now running between New Zealand and | Great Britain are so large, so swift, and I so perfect in their equipments, that it was thought almost impossible to improve upon them, but it would appear that, in this respect, there is no practical limit to the ingenuity of man, especially when excited by the keen competition which now obtains in all matters pertaining to commerce. It is not so many years ago that passengers from England to tLe colonies, in sailing ships — the only available means of transit, estimated they had made a quick run if they reached their destination in one hundred and twenty days. This was brought down to seventy-five days, a record very seldom broken by even the fastest and best navigated " ocean greyhounds." Correspondents who received replies to their letters to and from the Home j Country within twelve months were well satisfied. Then the Australian diggings broke out, and certain smart schooners, the Cheetah, Marchioness, Myvern, and others, were subsidised to bring the mails, which came ritt Australia, to Wellington, and people still thought they were well served. Then the Panama route was opened, which had to give way to that by way of San Francisco, which shortened the time j to six weeks. The direct steamers lowered this record, for in 1891 the Arawn, one of the Shaw, Saville, and Albion, Company's steamers, ran from | Plyu.outh to New Zealand in 38 days 10 hours 30 minutes, and from New Kealaticl to Plymouth in 3d days 3 \ hours and 40 minutes. The famous Gothic belongs to the same company. > Now another line is projected, and Mr Huddart, if he can obtain the assistance of subsidies from the Home, Canadian, and Australian Governments, will undertake to land mails in New Zealand in twenty one, and in Australia in twenty-four, days. Auckland would be the port of call in New Zealand. To do this Mr Huddart proposes to form a company to build four twenty-knot steamers with cold storage capacity. The development of ocean traffic by New Zealand is marvellous when we consider the limited number of the population. Many of our readers will remember, or have heard, of the prophecy made by the late James Macandrew, in the House, to the effect that the time was then not far distant when direct steamers would be trading between New Zealand and England. The idea was, of course, scouted as ridiculous, yet ihe memory of James Miicandi-'-w, who hud gone to }ua gcvire, was still green when his prophetic words were actually accomplished. The development of the frozen meat trade, in its infancy in 1881, added to the wool which has also increased in bulk if not in value as a whole, supplemented by the later establishment/^ successful butter factories, has made it possible to run huge cargo steamers at a profit winch, twenty years ago, would have been looked upon as mythical, not to use a harsher term. The cost of these vessels appears to be enormous, and the expenses attendant upon them are large in proportion, yet when we consider their carrying capacity, both for cargo and passengers, and the revenue derivable from these sources, our wonder ceases. We hope that the several Governments whom Mr Huddart has approached will fall into his views, and make no difficulty in subsidising his line of steamers to the extent he requires.