NEW SOUTH WALES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 665, 23 March 1859, Page 4

NEW SOUTH WALES.

"'The "Lion left Sydney on the >7th-instant. She '*brinx»'<H>- mail, but by the comtesy -of 'the (Captain | ; find {passengers wo .'Wo copies rff the ''-Sydney: -^Morning Herald'to the sth. The news thus re-: 'Ceivedis of -'a vfrngiwMvtnvy character, and tleals^with ■; "-nothing bftHocftl matters. Tn the absence of lull • details irom Melbourne .-coneomingr-the"Wellington Service^ we -avail oiu'selves-of the following •••article from'the 'Herald,' whose views however we ♦would not be considered as endorsing:—■■ ! tWIUJ-rNGTON AND MEI/BOUKNK. f •Thevpxcessive-"eagerness which lias been mniii-' f :f«stedHoSiJivert the tirade ••of New Zealand to Mel^ bourne seems to have met with a little rebuff from the LegislafeiveJ&ssembly ..of -Victoria—at least so far as forcing the 'trade'by means of a subsidised ■Jino of steamers is concerned. .The-new contract -from Melbourne to Wellington has "been unani-, r-mously knocked on the head, and the Government has been forced to give the contractors notice that' in six months the agreement is to terminate. 'It is j - curious to sco how Government policy occasionally -passes^from one extreme" to another. Only two ■ years -■■ago, when an assembly of delegates met at to arrange for au inter-colonial postal I service ;to dovetail with the ocean mail service/ in - accordance vtvith the stipulations of the Treasury .minute, the Government of Victoria / squelched the -whole concern by refusing to give <nore'than a thousand pounds to any-intercolonial • mail contract, and the reason urged for this conduct . was, that if the^suias^pecified in the various tenr"3ers that had been called for..and received were ,rgranted, it would cost move to bring some of these • outlying-colonies intp. connection with the trunk postal line, than would be recovered by: the prqpor--■tipn; which these colonies would-contribute to the subsidy. It was decided, therefore, to be ,- olleape? to leave them alone, and let them shift for • themselves, which was done. This policy was exa pressly aimed at New Zealand, which being the • most, remote, and at the same time the least popu- . lous, naturally required the largest -amount of expenditure, and yielded the smallest return. The ■ tender at that time for performing the inter-colonial mail service with New Zealand was we believe about £12,000 per annum. But. now what a change has passed over the spirit of .the dream! Instead of sternly refusing ■to give more than a thousand to accommodate New Zealand, the Government is willing to.,go'to -what " is unquestionably a most lavish outlay "for the sake of coaxing the trade of -New .Zealand to Port Phillip.. It offered "to guarantee an annual pay- - mentof nine thousand pounds, and if necessary to pay six thousand of it, obtaining reimbursement of . /the rest"from New Zealand, Perhaps the explanartiori of this change of policy is that in the present Cabinet of. Victoria there are two ex-New Zealanders; and that one of them, Dr. Evans, recently --•paid a visit to Wellington, where he quietly talked the matter over with the authorities of that province. The Chamber of Commerce at Melbourne ■ was also set in motion, which passed a resolution requesting the Government to vote six thousand pounds for a mail service,to \Vellington, on condition of an equal sum'being voted by New Zealand.. Tenders, having been called for, it was found that the A. S. N, Company were willing -now to do the work for nine thousand pounds a year, and a contract was accordingly "entered into, subject to six months' notice of cancellation. Dr.. Eeatherston, the Superintendent of Wellington, who was at that time in? Melbourne, pleaded so • eloquently the poverty of ,|lie province he represented, that he persuaded Dtv Evans into accepting - <for Victoria two-thirds ofitlie burden, leaving only -■■ one-third to be borne by the poorer colony. The '. sum of v six thousand pounds was put on the Estimates, but when proposed, the Government ■: suddenly found itself confronted by a serious and -unexpected opposition. Three objections were ■ urged against the vote. In the first place it was said that there was no justification for such an outlay, as fthere, was no great amount of inter- ; colonial trade or; correspondence, requiring such expensive accommodation, and that it was not right or worth while to spend the public money to - bolster up the speculations of private merchants. If the trade of New Zealand gravitated naturally to Melbourne, it would not need the aid of a subsidy ■to pilot it there ; and if it naturally took other ■channels, a steam line would not effectually divert it. Secondly, it was urged that the Government had overstepped its constitutional authority in making the contract without the leave lof Parliament, although the Assembly was in at the time. And, thirdly, it was Urged that the amount demanded was in excess of what was as Victoria should pay only one-half the subsidy, and not two-thirds, as the Government proposed. -Thus pressed, Dr. Evans -offered to compromise by breaking up the contract at the end of the year, and giving six months notice to that effect in *Tune. But the inexorable • apposition would not hear of such delay, and a resolution was passed requiring notice to. be immediately given of the termination of the contract. The Government, therefore, has had no option but ■to submit; the required notice has, we understand, Wen given, and thi* pet scheme, so laboriously prepared; has been ruthlessly demolished. A motion to- reduce the vote to £4,500, haif the subsidy, was ;3 tat, as also a further amendment:to reduce it to "£SOOO, although, oddly enough, a subsequent a nendment reducing it to £5500 was carried. The contiast, thii3 annulled, was not, entered into in' conjunction with the central government of New Zealand, but with one province merely, and this Sot the very obvious reasonthat such a negotiation -would have had no chance of success in Auckland. In fact the contract was a blowaimed at.Auckland, .-and especially with its-large and lucrative trade <with Sydney. This is not a matter of inference, "fur there was no concealment as to the intention. This was openly avowed, as an extract or two from the speeeh.es of the Government members will' abun- 6 tiantly show. *; Mr. Chapman said— "There were certain circumstances connected with the Government and the trade of Auckland -which marie it expedient to en-ter into this contract. There had been established a steam communication ■from. Auckland to Sydney. Thatline, he believed, had, for some time been interrupted, bitt had since beeu re-establislied.upon a permanent, footing; and it was the interest of. this colony to'endeavour to • clivert.from New South Wales the trade at present ...earned on between it and New Zealand," through the 'medium.of this steam corhmuhication witlrAuckHand. In former times a very considerable trade was carned-ort-between-, the'northern" pbrtion of • New inland ati<l Hobart'Town^. and what was the reason?.'-'Because':,there was established : in.Hobart ••■ Imv.nu.line flf^nofc steamers, perj;a/inly,.hut of,swift •s.uhng vessels,. wluch maintained .a .more .speedy" , .-coinfii.uni.qati.oo with New Zealand' than*any other • ••I'O^ipn^Ctlwcolwycpuiaoflfer.^rbhavaricius reasons' ■ this hue was ..broken np,-an«l the trade ceased. The Government had ..been induced to enter into tliese .arrangements through the" solicitations of the Mcl- . bourne Chamber of •Comnier.(«, which'luid pressed on them the advantages to be gained bytho trade with Sfew Zealand; and it was their wisli, at all •events,- that-a bargain of some.sort.should 'be entered "into. A line of steam vessels had already been established between tins colony and New Zealand and he believed the shippers of woolin that colony would take advantage of the steam communication

to ship 'their wool to this instead of (the mother, country. This class of men vrGrennostlysmull cap-' italistsi'to whonvit would be more <advantageou9 to submit to <t«ke a lower price for their produce in fthis 'Colony, anil -obtain quick returns, than incur the delay of sending it to England. He would ask how the value obtained for this produce woald be invested? In purchasing the produce importedinto this colony, such as teas, sugars, and other articles, And in British manufactures also imported here."

Dr. 'Evans^aid.•:—

■" The :general New Zealand had been hell at the extreme north of the colony, at Auclclana—a settlement formed almost entirely of 'thefamilies of merchants who had gone there from 'Sydney. 'He did not think in the whole province there were twenty families who Itad emigrated from England at their own expense. They had pro- ' ceedefl from Sydney.; and Auckland was, commer-cially-speaking, a "mere dependency of New South South Wales. Of the £1,100,000 of imports which New Zealand had last year, i£800;000 were from New South Wales, which had, in fact, almost a monopoly of the1 trade. Anything done in Auckland would be done with a view, if possible, to perpetuate -that monopoly; It was thought now "by the merchants of this city that the time had arrived foe ■ having «, direct steam postal communication •with New.'Zealand, with a view, if possible,'to assert the superiority of Melbourne as the emporium of trade "in the southern hemisphere. He admitted he had done all he could to advance this object, and he made use of what local knowledge or influence he possessed, in. New-> Zealand for that purpose?'

Mr. O'Shannassy said :— "It was considered desirable that New South *Wales not absorb the whole of the trade of *the neighbouring colonies, which had evidently been her policy. It was for this reason that she endea- • voured to cut off Victoria from the Suez route, and that-she'ttow wished to establish a communication with Panama. If tins route were established without being connected with Victoria by means of a communication with New.<Zealand,the whole of the inter-colonial trade would be .thrown into the hands of New South Wales. He thought that they should look -after their Sydney neighbours, and see what they were doing, "in order that they might profit .by them. When; in Sydney, he bad mixed agreat deal with the coawnereial community, aad had found that >they depended far more upon their harbour >"than the internal trade." .

Well, all this is plain enough. If the people of Victoria think proper >to tax themselves for the purpose of giving a twist to the New Zealand_trade of course they have a right to do so. But it is not easy to see Jhdw the' general body of tax-payers can be much interested in a scheme which, even if it is successful, can only give a direct benefit to a few merchants, at the cost of the community at large. But what will our readers say when we tell them that the ,Victorian Government did not intend to bear the burden of this subsidy alone, but that part of it was actually to be borne by New South Wales, part by the other colonies, and part by the mother country. Yet such is actually the fact. Dr. Evans made it appear'that he had entered into this contract in the ;hopes of making it come under the provisions of the celebrated Treasury minute of two years ago, which provided for an inter-colonial mail service, to unite with the ocean mail service, and which deputed the Government of Victoria, as being centrally situated, to arrange it; and that the cost of it would therefore be added to the general mail subsidy. We cannot be mistaken in representing this to be the case, because Dr. Evans expressly quoted the Treasury minute as an authorisation of the measure, and stated that he did not expect the Home Government would offer any objection" to it; all which would have been totally irrelevant if the Arrangement were simply an inter-colonial one between the authorities of Melbourne and Wellington. This is certainly rather cool, to make such a contract in virtue of powers that must be considered as having expired, —to make it with a mere province of New Zealand instead of with the General Government,—r:to make it without consultation with any of the?6ther colonies whom it was intended to entangle in the obligations. A steam mail service is intended primarily to give greater facility to existing correspondence anE'jesisting trade; and, secondarily, to give what is already established a greater development. According to the admitted statistics, therefore, a subsidised mail service for New Zealand should connect with Sydney, where the trade at present centres. The correspondence between Wellington and Melbourne is stated to be about 8000 letters per annum, and to pay £9000 a-year for carrying these would, as Mr. Michie pointed out, be giving the rather costly sum of £1 2s. 6d. for the conveyance of each letter.

We imagine that the authority given by the Treasury minute to establish an inter-colonial mail service has lapsed. It referred to the mail contract which has now expired; and the inter-colonial service was never called into existence, mainly through the hostile attitude assumed by the Government of Victoria. The present contract provides that each mail steamer ghall deliver mails, both going and coming, at King George's Sound, Kangaroo Island, Melbourne, arid Sydney. This provides for all the colonies on the main land, and there would remain only Tasmania and New Zealand to be accommodated. But the wants of the latter have been met by the contract made and now working with the company that has brought out the Lord Ashley and LordWorsley. This contract was made in England, at the urgent solicitation of the friends of New Zealand, whe represented that their colony had been left altogether neglected. The subsidy is £24,000 a year'to begin with, and £22,000 a year afterwards. But, inasmuch as part of the service rendered is strictly inter-provincial, and consists in merely coasting to and from, the various ports of New Zealand, it was arranged that the colony should pay £10,000 of the subsidy, and that the remainder should be added to the general mail subsidy, and be borne proportionately 'between the mother country and the various colonies, in accordance with the idea propounded in the Treasury minute. The Government of Victoria, therefore, having neglected to perform the duty to which it had been invited, of providing a general intercolonial mail service, the Home Government 'had, at the earnest solicitation of interested parties, taken into its own hands that part which related to New Zealand. It is too late, consequently, for the Government of Victoria suddenly to wake up and pretend to remember its duties. The task has been performed. The Home Government certainly would object to accept any responsibilities with regard to the contract between Melbourne and Wellington, as it has already incurred obligations with respect to one intev-colonial line/and would not, merely to satisfy a local trade and jealousy, duplicate its responsibilities in this r-espeet.