Hawke's Bay Times. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1808. THE MAILS VIA PANAMA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIII, Issue 552, 17 February 1868, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1808. THE MAILS VIA PANAMA.

iXidli.vs addictns jurarc in rrrLi magistri.

Hawke’s Bay will, we fancy, be inclined to unite with some of the Provinces in the Middle Island in decrying the Panama mail service as “an expensive luxury,” beyond the means of the Colony, or as conferring no benefit at all adequate to its cost. From its first inauguration the convenience ofj

jour Province has been ignored by the |Government, and in all the frequent .changes that have been made in the dates of arrival and departure of the j mail steamers, Hawke’s Bay lias fared ibadly. For several months in succession it, was our fate to chronicle the | transmission of the outward mails beifiro the inward mail had arrived, and 'though some part of the reason for this iwas to be found in the fact of the nonarrival of the mails at Wellington at the appointed time, the greater part of the blame w r as to be attached to a faulty time-table, which necessitatfd ■nr despatching our mails many days j before the actual departure of the ! steamer conveying them from Wellington. The scheme which came to its termination last month was, perhaps, the best for the convenience of this Province that had been adopted, as it usually gave us three or four days for reply ; but it was very short-lived, and now we witness a return to a system which will always preclude any but actual town residents from availing themselves of the return mail for replying to correspondence, and which will, in the event of the slightest departure from punctuality on the part of the ocean steamers in their arrival at Wellington, be the same with town residents also.

It must be understood that the only steamers subsidised by the Government for carrying the mails on this coast is that which is intended to bring our mails via Suez and Panama on the 27th, which also carries away our mail via Panama the next day to Auckland for transmission via the West Coast to Wellington ; and that which takes our mail via Suez on the 15th. As this latter will generally reach England at an earlier date than the succeeding mail via Panama, it will be principally used for correspondence; and as we srs to receive ~ot.li moiio at the same time, it is hard to perceive the benefit we in Hawke’s Bay are found to derive from the Panama service, beyond, perhaps, the occasional receipt of a few days’ later news.

xiA\v j\.Tj Dai ADDRESS TO SIR GEORGE GREY. The following reply to the address Ly the inhabitants of Hawke’s Bay to Sir George Grey, on his relinquishment of Governorship of these Islands was published in a Provincial Government Gazette, issued on Friday last; — TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE PROVINCE Of haavke’s bay sioning the address. Gentlemen, —I feel very grateful to you for tie address which you have presented to me on my removal iroiu iiie Government of New Zealand. The establishment of a settlement at Hawke’s Bay' was many years ago, an object I earnestly desired, and strove to have accomplished. I believed that from the fertility of its soil, and from its many natural advantages, that part of New Zealand was destined to enjoy a high degree of prosperity. Your address proves that these my anticipations are being fully realised and that I have the happiness of seeing the success of places for which I, for many years have earnestly labored; and that I c;irry with me into retirement the regard and esteem of those whose weltkre has been my constant care. I wish you a long continued career of prosperity. I thank yon more than I can say for your good wishes, which will lead me often to think of you; and if I can ever serve you, you will find me most ready to show by any means in my power, my regard for the people of Hawke’s Bay. G. Grey.