The Globe. TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 374, 24 August 1875, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1875.

From sundry articles which appear in the latest files which we have received of the Victorian newspapers, we find that the inhabitants of Melbourne are becoming more than ever convinced of the desirableness of direct steam communication, via the Cape of Good Hope, with England. The rapid passages made by the St. Osyth and Whampoa have given more prominence to the scheme than it has yet attracted, and we shall not be surprised if a vigorous effort is shortly made to start a line of full-power steamers from England to Melbourne. The trips of the St. Osyth and Whampoa have been almost experimental ones, and the owners of these boats prefer going to Sydney, where they can obtain an abundance of coals at a reasonable rate, to making Hobson’s Bay the terminus of the journey. This is naturally annoying to Victorians who consider that Melbourne is what the Boston people would call “ the hub of the colonies,” and who are excessively jealous of a preference shown for any rival colony. But there can be no doubt but that, with the enterprise and energy of the Victorians, they will succeed in establishing the line they require. Of course the contract lately entered into with the P. and 0. Company must stand good for its allotted time, and the heavy subsidies paid by the Victorian Government to this company, in order that the terminus of the line may be at Hobson’s Bay will still go on. It is, however, worthy of notice that at the last halfyearly meeting of the P. and 0. Company the directors were obliged to declare that, in spite of heavy subsidies, they could not pay any dividend to the shareholders. Now it must be evident that if a direct line of steamers between some port in England and Melbourne be established, that such a line is bound to draw away a considerable portion both of the present passenger and goods traffic that is now enjoyed by the P. and 0. Company. This is, of course, on the supposition that the steamers to be employed can be guaranteed to make a forty-five days passage, or perhaps even to accomplish it [in a shorter time than this. The numerous transhipments that take place on a voyage by the P. and 0. Company’s boats would be avoided, and of the superior healthiness of the long sea route there can be no question whatever. The fares too by the Cape of Good Hope would be, we should imagine, considerably lower than those charged by the great company who have for so many years been carrying the Victorian mails and passengers. The success of Messrs Money Wigram and Co’s auxiliary steam vessels has been very great. The passenger traffic by these ships is always large, and the old fashioned sailing vessels, even of first class lines, do not obtain the same amount of patronage from passengers as they did only a few years ago. People are more than ever convinced that “ time is “ money,” and consequently would rather pay the few extra pounds demanded for a passage in a vessel in which one may calculate with certainty to arrive in a specified number of days, than trust themselves on board a ship that may "reach England at a date varying from seventy-five to one hundred and ten days after departure. The fact of avoiding the passage by Cape Horn also weighs in no small degree with many colonists returning home. And yet, with all this, we hear that Messrs Money Wigram and Co are not going to build any more auxiliary steam vessels. They perceive that as these ships took the passenger traffic from the best sailing liners, so that they in their turn must give way to the full-powered boats that will shortly ply between England and the colonies. The sailing vessels and the auxiliary steamers will always command freights, and a certain amount of passenger traffic, but the latter will represent but a small amount of profit compared, to what it averaged a few /ears ago. The sailing vessels will for tears be able to obtain freights, and the extra expense of an auxiliary steam vessel will not be compensated for by an increased rate of freight, or a large number of passengers. In consequence of this, the firm we have mentioned has decided to build more sailing ships, and we presume that they will devote their attention more to cargo freights

than ever. The St Osyth and Whampoa are but the pioneers of the large steam fleet, that must, in a few years at the outside, be plying directly between England and Australia.