The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 1872.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 80, 3 April 1872, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 1872.

The Auckland Herald, of March 25, publishes on what it believes to be good authority the principal features in the San Francisco mail arrangement entered into by Mr. Yogel and Mr. Webb with tbe Victorian Government. They are as follows : — " (1.) Melbourne to be the terminus of the line. (2.) Auckland to be the first port of arrival, and the last port of departure, in New Zealand. (3.) The ocean steamer ou arriving at Auckland and landing the mail and passengers, to proceed to Melbourne direct; returning on tbe outward voyage by way of Port Chalmers, thence along the Nevr Zealand coast collecting the mails, to Auckland, whence she is to take her final departure. (4.) The Victorian Government to contribute an annual subsidy of £25,000 towards the line." Whether or not the arrangement is finally settled, or whether it is reserved for ratification by the Victorian Parliament we are not yet aware, but supposing it to be agreed upon, it places the Bervice on a far more substantial fooling than has hitherto been the case. Mr. Webb sailed for Aj^eric«k£ ip:>he ; : Nebraska on the* 23rd

Honolulu, to endeavor to make terms with the Hawaiian G-overninent, which originally entered into a contract with Mr. Hall for the conveyance of mails, but ou his failing to carry out his part of the agreement they have refused to enter into new arrangements with auy other contractor until they shall be satisfied that the various governments of the Australasian colonies have come to terms with him. As Mr. Webb will doubtless be able to produce his memorandum of agreement with the Victorian Government this difficulty will probably be got over Among other arrangements we may state that the head-quarters of the Company in New Zealand will for the future be at Dunedin. Hitherto, this line, viewed merely as a mail service, has proved an expensive failure, and to us it has always appeared that the finances of the colony of New Zealand were not in a sufficiently prosperous condition to justify her in entering upon an experiment which, however successful it might prove in the course of a few years, like all similar experiments, was almost certain to prove non-remunerative to the contracting company and altogether unreliable as a mail service for the first year or two of its existence. If it were deemed desirable that a line of subsidised steamers should connect these colonies with the continent of America, ifc would have been far more fitting that the older and wealthier Governments of Australia should have taken the initiative in the matter than that the youthful, but exceediugly precocious, colony of New Zealand, struggling as it is under an insufferable load of debt, should have been the first to dispense its borrowed funds on an undertaking so largely beyond its means. There may have been a certain amount of honor and glory, that no doubt was highly gratifying to Mr. Yogel when starring it in America, in being the pioneer of such a line, but in our present position a regard for pounds, shillings, and pence would tend to make our siatesmen far more popular than courting the approbation aud applause of a foreign nation ; the more so when they are only to be obtained at the expense of our already too heavily burdened taxpayers. However, tbe arrangement now said to have been entered into with the Victorian Government, which will of course reduce tbe amount of subsidy we at present have to pay to Mr. Webb, though to what extent we are not yet aware, places an entirely new aspect upon tho matter, and the line is likely to be looked upon with greater favor than hitherto in New Zealand. It certainly has been the means already of extending our trade with the United States, more especially with regard to wool, the competition in the purchase of wbich has been productive of no small advantage to the colonial growers. The absence of punctuality in the delivery of the mails that up to the present time has characterised this route, has largely militated against its success, and this fatal failing will have to be remedied before it can become popular in the colonies; but if it can be worked without entailing too heavy a strain upon our purse, and with something like a due regard to regularity, the service may eventually be made to meet all our requirements.