STEAM POSTAL COMMUNICATION WITH AUS TRALIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 368, 14 May 1856, Page 5

STEAM POSTAL COMMUNICATION WITH AUS TRALIA.

(From the " Home News," Jannaiy 7.)

Besides the renewal of the clipper contract from Liverpool for one year, Mr. Laboucherp, it is understood, is about actively to inaugurate his presidency of the Colonial Department by at last causing, the issue of a definite and bona Jlde advertisement for tenders for direct sieam postal communication with Australia, the want of which has so long been a source of well-, founded exasperation in the colonies and of reproach to the home government. The advertisement for these tenders may lie expected every day. The only London companies tbat can really compete for this important service are two. Fiist, the Royal West India Mail, whose boats now run half the distance, namely to Aspinwall, whence, in connection with the Panama Railway, they carry on a constantly increasing commerce with the whole of the west coast of South America, and incidentally also with Australia, with which there is considerable intercourse by way of Valparaiso, Callao, Coquimbo, Guayaquil, and other Chilian and Peruvian ports, as well as San Fiancisco. Secondly, the Peninsular and Oriental, whose boats also run a great part of the way, but nearly in a precisely opposite direction. 'Both these associations have immense resources, and no company of inferior magnitude, or in possession of less advantages as tn occupation of portion of the route, can virtually dispute the ground with them. If they are wis» they will not dispute \l with each oilier. There is plenty of room for both, without anvthiinr in the shape of mutually injurious rivalry. This was the main cau-e why there has been no strain service with Australia fur so long v linie back, and why, when it was attempted, the service was so inadequately performed, with such trumpery boats, and under such wretched management, that the system broke down, and recourse was a<jnin had, per force, to clippers, greatly to tbe disgust of the colonists, who were ready and most willing and anxious to pay liberally for what they have every right, to expect trom the advanced slate of su jam navigation in this country.

If Mr. Labouchere will act in a manner worthy of his couuneicia! antecedents, jind with a full sense of ihe responsibilities now placed upon riiiti in this respect, lie iikiv, by means of these companies alone, secure a regular fortnightly despatch and receipt of Australian letters. We understand that a Liverpool f;:m have purchased the charier of the lately di-soired Direct Australian Steam Navigation Company, of London, wiin, had they i;oi tiie e.apiuii, intended running their vessels to Aspinwall, in connection with the Panama Railway, the direct route ; but failing to obtain funds, and

t'>e patience of the. sluuehol.ievs being exhausted by the incertitude, attached to the proceedings of the GovenMiu'iu, liie undertaking has merely gone lo swell the wreck of Australian steam en lei prise. To what purpose the Liverpool in in mean to turn the. charter they have purchased we are nimble to siiy ; but, for the present, at all events, they are not, nor lor a lornr time can they be, in a condition to leiulei lor the contrat", now about to be opened.

We-have explnimu, on a former oie;i*ie-i!, that the public; can alone be etiicieiuly served, Ist, by allowing the Peninsular and Oriental to take: the mails, every .-.Uernate fo'-tni<jiit, by their long proposed route, originally ;uiê>i by Lieutenant W'aijhoin, rid Singapore and Sydney, which not only would not disturb, but would greatly enhance, existing important Anglo-Indian-Austral interests; and, :2ml, by allowing the lloyal West Indian Company to

take the mails every alternate fortnight, vi& Panama, a route not only much the shortest and speediest, hut the only one which would afford direct communication with New Zealand, it being one of the features of this plan to have a branch steamer at Auckland, to proceed immediately to Melbourne or Sydney, as the case might be, on the arrival of the steamer from Panama, en route for Sydney or Melbourne. The public, at all events, are in a far better condition than they were since the question was last bandied about from the Admiralty to the Treasury, and from the Treasury to the Colonial-office; and when no one functionary anionjrsi them had the least idea of the nature of the transit across the Isthmus. Even the late Sir W. Molesworth, who was supposed to lia^e made all colonial, and especially all Australian, matters a peculiar study, became aware, only a short time before his death, that the railway was much more than "projected," as he seemed to think.