STEAM POSTAL COMMUNICATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 428, 10 December 1856, Page 5

STEAM POSTAL COMMUNICATION.

We are requested to publish the following letter :— My Dear Me. Latter, —I see by the public papers that the merchants at Lyttelton have followed the example of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce^ in warmly taking up the arrangements made by the General Government for forwarding the mails arriving at Melbourne by the new line of steamers. The general idea seems to be° that^ there ought to be a steamer running to Auckland conveying the Auckland mails, and another carrying the mails for the Southern Provinces, to Nelson, Wellington, and, if poossible Canterbury. It seems to me that the plan proposed is hardly the best which could be devised, and certainly not the most economical. We ax-e paying at this moment £6000 a-year to the Zingari for doing the Inter-Provincial work, leaving out Otago. Auckland pays £5000 a-year to the William Denny for trading from "Sydney to Auckland. Another large bonus is probably now to be paid for a steamer to bring on the English mails from Melbourne to Auckland. And the proposal of the Wellington, and as I hear of the Lyttelton merchants, is to insist on another steamer being laid on to Wellington and the Southern Ports: of course requiring another bonus. The sum total of the public revenues of the Colony annually expended in Steam Communication will be extravagantly great; far greater than the corresponding advantages would warrant. When I was at Auckland, I urged upon His Excellency's Government the adoption of a plan which was very generally acceded to as advantageous, and which subsequent enquiries have shewn me to be perfectly practicable. I propose to unite the whole of the Inter-Colonial and Inter-Provincial services in one, in the following manner. The service is supposed to be performed by two powerful boats, of GOO or 700 tons burthen. The tables below show the days upon which oach boat would start from each Port on the route :— FIRST BOAT. Starts from Melbourne on the Ist. „ Manakau „ 7th. New Plymouth., 9th. Nelson' „ 11th. „ Wellington „ I:sth. „ Canterbury „ loth. „ Otago „ 17th. Arriving at Melbourne „ 25th.

SKCOND BOAT, Starts from Melbourne on the 14th. Otago „ 21st. „ Canterbury „ 23rd. Wellington „ 25th. „ Nelson „ 27th. New Plymouth 20th. „ Manakau „ 31st or Ist. Arriving at Melbourne „ 7th. The skirting of the first boat would be made to depend on the arrival of the English mail, which should always be taken, via Manakau. The starting of the second boat should be arranged so that it should arrive at Otago two or three days after tho arrival of the first boat. Jn this way all letters from Australia might be answered by return of mail from all parts of the islands. The inter-provincial work could be done by large and safe bouts, instead of by small and powerless ones. The Australian communication would probably pay, being caarried on with six ports in New Zealand, instead of one or two. And the whole bonus required would probably be small. I have beers informed on good authority" that there are persons in Australia who have the means, and who are willing to undertake such a service for a very moderate bonus. You are aware that the service for conveying the mails to New Zealand from Melbourne is a part of the general mail service, for which England is to pay half, and the colonies the other half; the latter half being divided amongst the several colonies, in proportion to the number of letters sent to and from each. No doubt; the authorities at Melbourne might object to make a part of such service a plan for distributing the mails amongst all the provinces. But if New Zealand paid the extra cost of such interprovincial service, in addition to its share of the general charge for the mail service, it is clear that the ai'rangement would be a very economical one for the colony. I am extremely sorry that his Excellency's Government did not take advantage of so favourable an opportunity as that presented by the overtures from the Melbourne Government to complete an arrangement so satisfactory as that I have endeavoured to point out. I am, my dear sir, Yours, very truly, James Edttabd Pitz Gebaid. Eobt. Latter, Esq. Christchureh, Dec. 8,1556.