THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 132, 4 June 1872, Page 3

THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE.

From our Australian files we learn that the press of Victoria is strongly opposed to this service, and that but little likelihood exists of its being agreed to by the Parliament of that colony. The following extracts from the Australasian will give some idea of the public feeling oa the matter : — Mr. Duffy's Californian mail contract is very disappointing. It is so because it is not what the public generally expected, and because there is very little probability that it will ever be ratified by Parliament. The desirability of procuring a regular and trustworthy mail service from this colony to California is undoubted. Its advantages are many and obvious, and would be worth obtaining at a considerable price. But £32,500 per annum is an extravagant price to pay for them — a price with which no benefits that we can reasonably expect from the service are at all commeusurate. New Zealand, which has a much deeper interest in the scheme than we can have, is only to pay £27,500. It is only to pay this sum for its principal and almost sole mail service to Europe and America, while this colony, to which the service is of quite secondary importance, is called upon For remainder of news see fourth page.

to pay a much larger amount. If the colony had been prepared to pay anything near this sum, why was not the offer of Mr. Hall accepted several months ago ? We should then for a much lower annual payment have had a better, or, at any rate, a more favorite, line of vessels. Melbourne would have been the real terminus of the line, and the service would have been an Australian one. Now Mr. Duffy agrees to pay a larger sum to a foreign line of vessels which will never be popular with Australianß as passenger ships, and Melbourne instead of being the head-quarters of tbe line is made a mere port of call. Victorians thought that, at any rate in tbe quality of business-like astuteness, Mr. Duffy might have been matched against any man in a negotiation, but it seems that be has been completely outwitted, and fairly bought and sold by the superior tact of Mr. Yogel in this matter. Under some circumstances it would no doubt be very gratifying to learn that New Zealand was well pleased with the bargain made by Mr. Duffy regarding the Californian mail service, but we very much question whether delight is the precise expression for Mr. Duffy's feelings, when he heard of the satisfaction which his contract occasioned in that colony. We read that the contract was regarded as a masterpiece of policy on the part of —not Mr. Duffy, but Mr. Yogel, and he was invited to a public luncheon in recognition of his success. The clever politician, however, preferred to first land his fish, and declined to discuss the contract at a public gathering till he saw what chance there was of its being confirmed by the Victorian Parliament. At Otago, the arrangement is regarded as most satisfactory, and Mr. Yogel is credited with displaying tact, energy, and perseverance in the negotiations. The hope is expressed that, as the treaty will here be supported by a Government, " which has a good working majority at its back," all will go off smoothly, and that it will be ratified without opposition. The New Zealand Legislature, it is remarked, cannot refuse its approval to a contract, " so advantageous "to that colony. All this is eminently satisfactory to Mr. Yogel, but it is hardly likely that it forms matter of unmitigated gratification to our own Chief Secretary, who must by this time be comparing rather grimly the chorus of praise which the New Zealand Treasurer has received with the prospects of the discussion that lies before the Victorian Government.

It is to be regretted that a fascinating speaker, such as Mr. Duffy is, should not be a shrewder man of business. Or perhaps that is expecting too much, and it would be more reasonable to regret that he had not associated with him in office some one able to secure for money moneys worth. The Californian mail contract is friendless, and no one wonders at the hilarity of the diplomatic Mr. Yogel, who, after outwitting the Victorian Government, entered with enhanced relish and equal success into the more difficult task of cornering the Sydney bootmakers. Would it be impertinent to suggest that the £3,000 per month to be paid the American speculators in old-fashioned wooden steamboats, if offered as a monthly bonus for the accomplishment of a 45 day's passage, would secure us a splendid line of direct ocean steamers ? And there would be this obvious advantage, that unless the work were done, the money needn't be expended.

To prevent a continued series of annoyances caused by the unfriendly visits of professional ladies with Amazonian proclivities, one of the leading dramatic journals in New York has issued the following notice: — "Two young ladies attached to the Theatre — , foeliDg aggrieved at some remarks made by our reporter, 'went for him' on the 15th inst., for the purpose of instituting another * little unplesantness,' but as our reporters have strict instructions not to fight with women, he, in obedience to directions, instead of beating the young ladies, beat a masterly retreat. This Amazonian assault is one of the indirect results of the woman's rights movement, and though it makes us feel rather mean to seem to get scared at girls, yet we must put up with such inhuman treatment for the sake of preserving the peace; but we laka this opportunity to warn all hostile girls to beware for we have just commenced the training of a woman just 6ft. 2in. in her stockings, to whose tender mercies we shall consign all belligerent females who may hereafter object to anything our reporters may say in their line of duty. These metropolitan women ought to feel pleased that this fighting woman is not quite ripe for business, but she is coming to it, as she already knocks a 3001 b. bag head over heels. Now we give timely warning, .she will . ' put a head ' on the first woman she tackles.

The following marriage announcement appeared in a late, Melbourne paper : — "Ah Poo — Thurlow. — At the Wesley an Parsonage, Lonsdale-street, Melbourne, Ah Poo, Esq., of Canton, China, to Miss Frances Louisa Maud, eldest daughter ol F. J. W. Thurlow, Esq., late of Belfast, Port Fairy, and grand-daughter of the late Captain Edward Wilson Cotton Hodgson, and great grand-daughter of the late Captain Ressic." " -ZEgles," in the Australasian, says : — " It is doubtless very uncharitable and unchristianlike, but the souls of men revolt at the matrimonial alliance of Mongolians with English women. It doesn't mend the matter much, nor does it quite Anglicise the bridegroom that Ah Sin appends ' Esq.' to his native appellation. Nor need the lady feel so much pride in the alliance as to parade in the public journals the names of her distinguished ancestors — an aonouncement which, if they could read it, would make them shudder in their graves."