THE PANAMA CONTRACT.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 360, 22 March 1866, Page 2

THE PANAMA CONTRACT.

(From the New Zealand Advertiser, 14th March.) The Otago Daily Times of the Gth instant, in its leading article, has the following;— “ Recent occurrences make it very doubtful if there will be a Panama service at all. Neither Captain Hall, nor the Government of New South Wales, have yet hound themselves. Owing to the mismanagement of the late Postmaster-General, the colony is in the position of being bound without being able to bind. It is not impossible that the Company will be wilting to relinquish the contract, and it can do so if it pleases.” We do not usually take any notice of incorrect Statements appearing in the columns of our 0.; go contemporary, hut there is something bo very audacious about the statement contained in the above extract that we are hound to give it a most emphatic contradiction. What are the “ recent occurrences” which make it “ very doubtful if there will he Panama service at all?” If these “ occurrences” are likely to exercise so impCStant SS influence on thia uuestion.why

should the writer in the Times so selfishly keep them within his own breast ? The fact is, finding that even Mr Paterson, one of the Dunedin members, and acting PostmasterGeneral, declines “ for the sake of Otago to do an injustice to the whole Colony,” the political agitators of the South do not longer scruple to hazard any assertion with reference to a matter with which they are entirely unacquainted. When our contemporary states that neither Captain Hall nor the Government of New South Wales are yet bound to the contract, he makes an assertion which is simply devoid of truth, and when he attempts to throw the blame of the delay upon the shoulders of Major Richardson, the late Postmaster-General, he endeavors to injure a political opponent by falsehood. The Weld Ministry, after much negociation with Captain Hall, finally entered into an agreement by memoranda binding upon both parlies in general terms, and when they resigned, tbe contract setting'forth the details, was about to be signed in regular form. The writer of the article in the Times must have been acquainted with this fact. That the final contract has not yet been signed is not the fault either of the late or the present Government, nor, perhaps, of anyone else. Finding that it was impossible to gain the necessary attendance of the Ministry, in consequence of the political crisis which had occurred, Captain Hall proceeded to Australia on tbe business of his Company, and he has not yet returned, being absent not one month, as Mr Paterson said, but five or six. This should be borne in mind, and assertions like those above alluded to, Laving no foundation whatever in fact, calculated as they are to undermine public confidence in tbe good faith of the Government of this Colony, should be excluded from the columns of even such an unscrupulous journal as the Otago Times. The assertion that the Company have any inclination to relinquish the contract is equally false. There is eveiy reason to believe that they have entered upon the service in thorough good faith, and that they will do their utmost to carry out the contract in its integrity. All that remains to be settled are the dates of arrival and departure at the different ports, and other matters of detail, which will be easily determined when Capt. Hall arrives from Australia.

It is very well that Mr Paterson should soothe the feelings of his constituents by telling them that their port should benefit directly from the establishment of the Panama route; but at the same time it is manly and straightforward for him to decline to assist in doing an injustice to the whole Colony for the sake of Otago, When Mr Paterson says that he would approve of a Northern and a Southern port being made respectively the points of arrival and departure for the Panama boats, he again talks to the electors, and not as a member of (he Ministry, because it must be remembered that Mr Stafford, on taking office, distinctly deuied having any intention whatever to interfere with the port of call question, and we have not the slightest doubt that such a proposition as that alluded to would meet with his most decided opposition. We may be equally certain that Mr Stafford will carry out the engagements made with reference to this matter by the late Ministry in the most thorough good faith, and that he will not throw any impediments in the way of its complete and final settlement.