THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL JOB.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1393, 5 August 1872, Page 2

THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL JOB.

(From the Evening Post.) The audacity of Mr Vogel ha* reached a point'which actually borders on the sublime Of all the schemes which holms attempted, none has been a more: disastrous failure than the San Francisco mail seivice. From first to last, everything has gone wrong with it; it has proved inefficient for its work, and. ruinously expensive; the expected subsidy from America has been distinctly refused; the vessels employed in it have been denounced by the Americans Legislature and Press in the strongest terms; all the Australian Colonies have in turn declined to connect themselves with it, and it is now thrown upon our hands as a species of white elephant. The contract with Mr Duffy was never even submitted for the approval of the Victorian Legislature, and the Victorian Press is unanimous in asserting that had the Duffy Ministry remained in office for years to come, they never could have induced Parliament to fanetion such a scheme. In fact, as soon as it was made public, its fate was; sealed, it being universally voted by the Victorian public a dodge—an attempt; to bamboozle them out of a sum of money. We have frequently quoted from the lending Australian journals, opinions on this submit—opinions: which never varied from the day when the latest "contract" saw the light—all utterly condematory of Mr Vogel and his attempted job. We have also noticed debates in the American Senate on the subsidy question, and we find the New York Herald speaking of the affair in the following terms:—

"The Australasian stt^anishipsubsidy swindle was again taken up in. the Senate this morning, and, after a short debate, laid upon the table to allow the Judicial Appropriation Bill to be taken up; but the debate has gone far enough to demonstrate the fact that this littlo attempt of Ml* Banks to gather honey will fail in the Senare. There are in this grab so many glaiing jobs that few men will have the hardihood to support it. As 31 r Morrill, of Vermont, said, ' It is a curious bill.' "

And yet, in the face of all this, wo find Mr Vogel telling the House of Representatives that he intended to ask Parliament to ratify th« Yictorian contract, even though it might be possible that the Victorian Parliament would refuse the terms submitted to them —which they certainly will. Is this an attempt on the part of the Treasurer to brazen out his glaring failure—like Petruchio, " with oaths to face the matter out?" or d6es he still hope to throw dust in the eyes of the people of New Zealand? The mouuments of hi* disastrous mismanagement of the postal service are " all around him M—communication with England irregular and uncertain—the Nebraska lying in quarantine, and another vessel aatsidised to do her work—one part of the main ocean line travelled by a boat utterly unseaworthy, and in which no one will sail who can avoid it—and all the while an enormous subsidy being paid. But these are trifles to our great statesman. He has, no doubt, a xiew scheme hatched for freeing himself from the muddle—-possibly a fresh contract with the Sydney Government or the A..S.N. Co.— aud so can calmly tell the House that it will have "an opportunity of discussing the whole matter." If the result of chat discussion is not a sweeping censure on Mr Vogd's proceedings, Parliament can scarcely claim to have Wen faithful to its trust.