The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 531, 5 December 1857, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times.

Saturday, December 5 i The August mail from England was late. it appears likely that we shall have to wf still longer for the September one • and? confidence is completely shaken as to X* punctual arrival of all subsequent mail! according to present arrangements \yt ! 4 is only an annoyance and inconveniencei tn persons not engaged in commerce is » downright loss to mercantile men- and t is obvious that through them the who!* community must suffer directly, ft • quite time that we should take serious steps'to place our postal arrangements on a footing commensurate with the .general prosperity of the settlement. Of course, we cannot prevent by an* exertions of ours the delay which may take place in the carriage of the mail be" tween England and Melbourne; Melbourne will, we may be very sure, take whatever steps are possible to have such irregularities remedied; our concern is with the transmission of the mails from Melbourne to New Zealand. Our readers are awar* that, according to the arrangements of the General Post Office, all mails for the Southern Settlements of New Zealand are at present sent to Wellington to be sorted there; but we are glad to find that the General Government have written home to request that the mails for the different provinces may be made up separately in London, so that there may be no obstacle to making such arrangements as may be most conducive to the interests of each province in the transmission of their mails from Australia to New Zealand. We may, therefore, hope that ere long it will depend only on ourselves to have ■ a direct postal communication between Melbourne and Lyttelton. Apart from the consideration of increased speed in the transmission of the English mails, there are many other reasons which would make a regular steam communication between Melbourne and our own port most desirable. We have heard it stated, on the authority of a gentleman well acquainted with the Colony of : Victoria, that if a regular steamer plied between Port Philip p and Lyttelton it :would increase our population in a couple >$>f• years IOjOQO inhabitants; and numbers;-in ; Melbourne whose prospects are ;iiot good, if they only knew the resources of this,province and had'means of access to it, would be soon flocjking down here. In a commercial point of view.it is manifest that a regular communication with Melbourne would be far more important than a more frequent intercourse with any, part of New Zealand, except the place appointed for the seat of the General Government. It is to be hoped that the Provincial Council, will take the whole question of the postal service into serious consideration as speedily as possible, and that no time may be lost in carrying out whatever plan may be deemed most likely to succeed. Present can be but temporary, and when we consider the 'length of time required to get a system into working order, it would be perhaps wise to put a steamer on the berth between Melbourne and Lyttelton even before we are enabled to get our mails that way, in the confidence tHat we shall reap the full benefit of our increased expenditure. We can now afford to take some energetic steps to ensure the continuance of our progress. If we let time slip by, we shall not perhaps again be so well able to make the effort. The effects of regular , monthly steam communication with Melbourne are not to overrated. Melbourne ranks, now as the third or fourth town in the British Empire as to size and importance. Regular intercourse with such a city would connect us closely with the rest of the world, with progress and civilization.