THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 654, 24 July 1876, Page 3

THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

The following correspondence appears in the Sydney Morning Herald :— “Sir, —On sth instant we handed you copies of letters from the Commanders of the American mail steamers City of New York and City of San Francisco, regarding the Fiji Navigation and the New Zealand Coastal Service, and as the opinion of the commanders of the Clyde-built steamers Zealandia and Australia will doubtless be equally interesting, we hand you copies of letters from Captains Perries and Cargill on the same subject, “We are, &c, “ Gilchrist, Watt, and Co, “ Sydney, 21st June,” “ R. M. M. S. Australia, “ Kandavu, June 9, 1876. “ Messrs Gilchrist, Watt, and Go, Sydney. “ Dear Sire, —In reply to your letter of the 2nd instant, I beg to say that I consider Kaudavu harbor a very fair one, and pretty easy of access by daylight, but I do not think it would be prudent to take it at night, the entrance being so contracted, unless the place was well lighted, and goodsized buoys with beacons laid down. “If there is to be a junction at Fiji, it seems to me the most suitable place to touch at, as thereby the vessel need not go through the Group, but can adopt the eastern route.^ “ With regard to the navigation of the Fiji Group generally, I can scarcely express an opinion ; but it seems to be pretty safe, provided clear weather could be depended upon. “ The coastal service of New Zealand seems a great mistake, and the ships quite unfitted for it, as exemplified by the Australia grounding at Port Chalmers, and again by her having to lie outside, nine hours, to wait for the mails, which were shipped with great difficulty ; apart from this, in our case there was not sufficient traffic to cover half the expenses. “Of course the most direct route from Sydney would be via Fiji, with a branch from New Zealand, but as the route from Sydney via Bay of Islands and Honolulu is hardly 300 miles more than via Fiji, I certainly think the latter the most preferable and economical route. —Yours, &c, “ Wm. Cargill,”

“ Sydney, June 21st, 1876. “ Messrs Gilchrist, Watt, and Co., Sydney. “ Dear Sirs, —With regard to the present route of the San Francisco mail steamers, I am decidedly of opinion that sooner or later the * forked’ service must be abandoned, and that it would be much to the general interest were the Bay of Islands made the depot for receiving the New Zealand mails, passengers, and freight. The direct course to Honolulu would then lead by the Navigators’ Group, where a small steamer from New Caledonia and Fiji could meet the mail steamer at an appointed rendezvous, and without any delay tranship mails and passengers. lam satisfied that the present contract time can be quite as surely accomplished, if not with greater certainty by the route I propose, than by the present route. The delay occasioned by calling at Fiji, together with the uncertainty of reaching Manuka passage by daylight, are my chief reasons for proposing the alteration. “ Should one of these large steamers be caught in a hurricane amongst the Fijian Group, a terrible disaster might be the result, “ With regard to entering Port Chalmers, I can only say that the recent experiences of other commanders lead me to believe that it is not a port to be entered safely and successfully by such large and heavy vessels. “ I am, dear Sirs, yours truly, “ J. S. Ferries, “Commander R. M, S. Zealandia."

On the above subject the Herald remarks : “ The outward and homeward voyages of the Zealandia, on her recent trip, have given us another proof of the efficiency to which the Pacific mail service can be brought when its capabilities have been fully developed. We have often had occasion to complain of unpunctuality, and in England the com-: plaints have been louder still, almost suspiciously so in some cases, as if some vested interest or other there were being threatened, and were resorting to the unworthy expedient of frying down the service unfairly. Nor can it be said that the passengers by the vessels first employed in the present service always found life at sea the most agreeable thing in the world, with such accommodation as the? found on board. But the new management appears to have changed all that, and to have secured speed, comfort, and cleanliness. The mails which left here by the Zealandia on the 7th April were delivered in London on the 22nd of May, three days before the contract time, notwithstanding the detour by way of Auckland, and detentions at the different ports of call amounting to thirty, hours. The mails which were delivered in Sydney on the 19th instant, two days before the contract time, left London on the 4lh May. They were a day late in leaving San Francisco ; there were detentions of twelve hours at Honolulu and of eleven hours at Kandavau ; but the time lost was made up, and two days saved by the speed of the Zealandia. We are therefore having a forty-five days’ service between London and Sydney, if this trip be a specimen of what the new steamers can average, with the possibility of saving two or three days more when the land transit service and the Atlantic route shall be made to work harmoniously with the Pacific service, and useless detours and unnecessary detentions reduced to a minimum. All these facts point to the conclusion that it would be a pity to permit intercolonial jealousies or political partizanship to mar this enterprise just when success appears within reach. From Philadelphia we learn that New South Wales and Queensland were the only two colonies to represent Australasia at the Centennial Exhibition on the opening day ; and therefore, in spite of our misgivings, the determination to forward our goods by our own mail route was a wise one, and our neighbours might have done well to have sent theirs by this route too. Let New Zealand accept the Bay of Islands as the port of call, let the necessity for detention at all other places be reduced to a minimum, let every steamer which the Company puts on the line be equal to the Zealandia, and let there be the same consideration for the comfort of the passengers which those who made the last voyage gratefully acknowledge, and there can be no ground for doubt that the Pacific service will become thoroughly efficient in less time than the P. and O. Company did, and win its way in a few years to a foremost place among the great lines of steamers that conduct the world’s traffic, and have already paid Australia the compliment of acknowledging that her commerce is worthy of their competition,