THE NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIAN STEAMSHIP LINE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 90, 18 April 1871, Page 4

THE NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIAN STEAMSHIP LINE.

[From the News of the World."] Our New Zealand and Australian readers will be glad to learn that the long mooted steamship line from San Francisco to the Colonies is now an assured fact, and that the first vessel of the new service will leave our port on the Bth of April. On the 7th instant the Hon. Julius Vqgel telegraphed from Washington to the proprietors of this paper that the " contract with Mrssrs. Webb and Holladay was justsigned," and a later dispatch from Mr. VV. H. Webb, at that time in New York, gave the full particulars of the arrangements made. This contract signed is " for a four-weekly line between San Francisco, New Zealand, Sydney, and Melbourne, *at such speed as to enable the mails to be delivered in London, or vice versa, in forty-eight days. The pioneer steamer is to sail on the Bth of April." By reference to our advertising columns, it will be seen that the magnificent steamship Nevada, formerly in the Panama service, is to be the first vessel employed. She is announced to stop at Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands ; Auckland, Lyttelton, and Port Chalmers, N.Z. ; connecting with steamers for Sydney, N.S.W., and Melbourne, Victoria ; Returning via the same ports, she will leave Port Chalmers on May 13, and Auckland on May 19. The first vessels employed on the service will be the Nebraska, Nevada, Santiago de Cuba, Dacotah, and Moses Taylor, all staunch, first-class vessels, the four former being equal in speed and accommodations to? any in the Pacific. As will be seen above, the contract' is for a four-weekly service. i. c., thirteen trips per annum, alternating with the P. and O. line. Even with the comparatively inferior vessels employed before, the amount of Australiau and New Zealand travel through our port has been large ; nojyyft is doubtless destined to increase and grow to formidable proportions. Our route is by all odds the most pleasant, and the trip is made cheaper than by the English steamers. In place of the stormy Indian Ocean and Red Sea, we offer the traveller the usually calmer Pacific Ocean, seven days of land travel by the great Transcontinental Railroad, and the passage of the Atlantic by some of the best steamships afloat. The opportunity of seeing something of the United States should alone be a great inducement to travel this way. Up to the present time Congress has blindly refused to see that the subsidy asked for the establishment of the line was a perfectly legitimate demand on the nations purse. But the prospects are good for a speedy reconsideration of the subject. Unfortunately, at the time when the bill was laid before the Senate and House, there were a number of other steamship subsidies of a more or less questionable nature demanded, and our scheme, deserving of the utmost encouragement from any member who believes in the establishment of American commerce, suffered in their company. Sooner or later we must believe that the necessary aid will be granted, which, with the assistance of the Australian Colonies, will establish the line as one of the foremost in the world. The New Zealand Government has, by its liberal action, virtually inaugurated the live on a substantial basis, and will undoubtedly reap the reward of its enterprise. Its representative here, the Hon. Julius Yoi:el, from the moment of his arrival worked steadily and persistently in this good cause. He addressed the Chambers of Commerce of San Francisco, Chicago, and elsewhere, on the subject, j and the satisfactory arrangements he hasjust consummated at Washington are very much ! due to his tact and perseverance. Where- ; ever he has travelled, he has left an j impression highly complimentary to himself, the Government he represents, and the enterprise and enlightenment of his fellow Colonists. His addresses have been' characterised by good sense, terseness, and j a thorough comprehension of the subject.; Mr. Yogel left for England in the Cunard steamship Russia, on the Bth of March, immediately after the consummation of the contract" with Messrs. Webb and Holladay. The former gentleman, the eminent ship builder 'and ship owngr of New York, is one of thie shrewdest and most far-seeing men in the United States, while the : latter • firm owns a large proportion of the steamships for domestic arid-foreign Pacific ports leaving San Francisco,' and has been ; associated with a dozen enterprises of the 'greatest importance to our coast. ; TJoth i Messrs. Holladay and Webb count among the wealthy men bf our country, and the' interests of the line are perfectly safe in; their, hands. We. shall say nothing, in re-j gard'to the vessels to he .employed, assured j that as soon as they arrive in the Colonial j (Pprts, they will i be the, admiration, of all j who ban find time to inspect them. ;