SAN FRANCISCO AND DIRECT MAIL SERVICES.

Kumara Times, Issue 2770, 7 August 1885, Page 2

SAN FRANCISCO AND DIRECT MAIL SERVICES.

The Auckland Herald, July 30th, states :—“ On June 18th last the mails left London for New Zealand, via San Francisco, and arrived here on Monday morning last at about one o’clock, by the R.M. s.s. City of Sydney, and that after the mail had been detained one day in transitu between London and San Francisco. The time occupied was thus under 39 days. On the same date (June 18) the Shaw, Seville and Albion Company’s s.s. Tainui left London for New Zealand, and on the 28th instant she reached Hobart, leaving there again the same night for Dunedin, and consequently is due there early on Sunday morning next, which will make her passage between 44 and 45 days. The mails which arrived here via San Francisco reached Dunedin last night. As to the merits of the direct route as against the San Francisco service, the trips alluded to give a fair criterion of the relative speed of the two lines, and, as will be seen, the result is in favour of the San Francisco route by, at the least, four days to the port for which the direct steamer is bound. Both mails left London together ; the San Francisco reached Dunedin on the 29th, and the direct liner is not due until the 2nd August. The Tainui’s mail is not expected to reach Auckland until about the Bth of August, or 12 days after the delivery of the San Francisco mail here. In fact the Sydney merchants will receive their advices via San Francisco simultaneously with the delivery of the mails by the direct line to the Dunedin merchants.”