THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2590, 26 July 1882, Page 4

THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE.

[By Tklegeaph.l WELLINGTON, July 25. Papers relating to the Sau Francisco mail service were tabled to-night. They number thirty-four in all. Some are very lengthy, but they contain nothing new or of mnch general interest. The report of the AgentGeneral, Sir D. Bell, on the possibilities of an Orient steam service between England and Hew Zealand was laid on tho tuble tonight. It is a voluminous document of twenty closely printed pages, absolutely bristling with tabular figures and elaborate calculations. The gist, however, of Sir D Sell’s conclusions may be briefly stated. He ■hows that for a mail service (four weeks) at the rate of 131 knots, which he considers the least that would be worth the subsidy that would have to be paid for it, a subsidy far exceeding £IOO.OOO, probably £160,000, would be required; while the American line, with a steamer of 6200 tons gross, and a service of fifty-four days out and forty-seven days borne, would only require a subsidy of about £IO,OOO (ten thousand). In each ease a dividend of 7k per oent. to shareholders is taken as the basis of the calculations as the least which would tempt a company to enter into the undertaking. The comparative ■ results are brought out thus : —“ Tho postal item would cost £45,000 or £50,000 more, calling for a larger capital by a quarter of a million, and requiring £20.000 a year more, to say nothing of interest on oapitaL The postal line would burn k. £40,000 worth more coa', and have to pay HKIPjOOO for going through the Suez Oanal, or on those items alone. The would earn about £BO,OOO HiUßtL 0 wof k* D ß expenses also would be nHHBLPOO than the mercantile boats.”

line probably would earn iii6o,<3BQ expenses would come to nearly as much, leaving hardly anything for Interest on capital, but a mercantile line, though only earning £285,000, would bare at the end of the year £85,000 over working expenses, leaving enough for debenture interest, &c,, and only requiring a subsidy of £IIO,OOO to pay 7} per cent, dividend. The Agent-General Bays, in conclusion, that Parliament will have to determine explicitly four things—(l) the amount of subsidy; (2) the sue of the ships; (3) the ports they must enter; (4) the first port of arrival and the last of departure. He adds ithat his estimate of a £IO.OOO subsidy for a mercantile line is dependant on the supposition that the steamer will be " full up.” hath out and home, with passengers and eargo. He says the decision of the committee last session, that ships mutt be at least 4000 tons, speed 12} knots, and of draught to enter *'chief ports,” is rather vague, and asks, “Was it meant to include Fort Chalmers, because if so, ho cannot see how a first class 12} knot, ocean going steamer of 4000 tons, can be built to go over the bar; and if going into Fort Chalmers is meant to be a condi-

tion, it must bo the governing feature in any designs, and must have considerable effect on XthiljHOpoition of the subsidy to the work."