SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 648, 22 January 1859, Page 4

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

■We'have Adelaide papers to the 20th ultimo.

The Bbanch Posstal '■ S-eevice to KANpARoo Island.—When the vote for the postal subsidy for the first 'half of the ensuing year was before the Assembly yesterday,A the 'Attorney-General stated, ;in reply to a question: from Mr. Solomon, that the subject of the branch-.ser vice, in. Kangaroo fsland, and *the other arrangemeriis by the terms of tl>e new contract, were under £he consideration of the Government, and 'thai; it was probable •tenders would be invited'by advertisement within a vei-y-few days., Thefirst steamer to call at Nepean Bay will be the homeward vessel carrying the February mails; and, of course, with the :date of the first -pi-eparations fgr meeting that vessel the service will commence. Although there can be but little doubt of the propriety of preparing to carry out the provisions of the contract as it has been entered upon, we must repeat the expression of a hope'that the Goverhtd&nt will take active measures to induce the P. anid.o. Company to run their boats a little farther up. the gulf. The trifling addition to the length ©f the voyage thus occasioned would be nothing; in with the advantage which all the colonies would at once derive in being able to receive telegraphic intima*tion of the arrival of the niail.— Register, •Immigeationt.—The vote for this purpose was Teduced by the Assembly from twenty to ten thou-sand-pounds for the half-year, on the ground'that labour was abundant, and that the immigrants only •went'to the neighbouring colonies. The 'Register' •says, "Our wisest course would be to discontinue !that portion of our «3 rstem which gives free pj(s--sages to persons selected in the United Kingdom by our agents. This would'restrict our immigration system ■to the assistance afforded to persons whose passage-money is pju-fcly paid :by residents here., and to issuing of remission certificates. Probably it would be desirable to retain power to give free passages to working people nominated by respectable persons residing here, under certain-regu-lations. Tlie great principle of our system should -be to attract a3l our immigrant population through the instrumentality of settled residents in the; colony. The system of bringing persons to the (cdnnies.itt the public -expense, and landing them Indiscriminately upon the world, is a bad one, and be-replaced' %y a system which attaches men to particular localifcies evoh before they arrive at tliehi. Another of the" advantages of the principle we,recoinmend is that it woul4 effect a considerable' 'sayj'!»i£ "m tiieoffsiof oijr jmmigVation department,

AH the labour of sol cotion would be performed gratuitously by the nominators here, and a groat portion of the staff in Britain might be dismissed. Bat by perpetuating the existing system, and reducing the amouut do voted to immigration purposes, we are really increasing thd cost of each of the immigrants we obtain. -Ofticu expenses remain unreduced, and consequently., the amount which would have been deemed trifling when devoted to a number of objects becomes a serious expenditure when it is absorbed by a few."