TO ENGLAND IN EIGHTEEN DAYS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 203, 5 October 1878, Page 4

TO ENGLAND IN EIGHTEEN DAYS.

The Sydney Echo writes -.—The ! strides that are being made [t\ every direction are simply wonderful, aud not the least etrikiug ts the way in wl i;h the time of ths journey between EngJaiicl and Australia is being lessened. Oiipper-buih ships at ouo tima were thought to be wonderfully tan w {,en they accomplished thj trip j Q a little over two months; now the ocean i steamships run the journey from Adelaide to Plymouth ia ihirtv-oine days. This was the feat that the'Ohimbomz) , achieved; but there is, tf ihe indications j of the times are to be relied on> a higher pinnacle far in the match ii" successful F-ccomplishment thia any yet.gjuerally believed practicable. Less tlinn eighteen y ft y 8 between the Old World ond hec Australian possessions is now oo the tapis, rnd meny of a'.vauced thought here thiLk it possible even 'within the next, ten years. Those ladies who are humorously beeCrihed by Tom Hood, iu effect, e 5 beholding a coffin in every tackle aud black, and spar connected wiih the ship, will rejoicu that the dangeis of the sea during a trip home are to be lessened. Ttte idea ia this— Four dayc to l ho Gulf of Carpentaria, sdveti days to the Indian Continent, and than fiom seven ! to nine days from tin Indian Couiiuent right into Cnaritig Cross; and that, too, without leaving the in iway carriage! It is ho Utopian scheme. The valfey of ibu Euphrates is the great land road to tho East, and England must secure j Us openness at all hazards. It is j doubtlees for tin protection of her land and water routes to her great Eastern possessions that tho islands of Opprus , and Socotra have been annexed. When, eome time iu tbe future, the idea shall have changed into an accomplished fact the natural exclamation will be " What a shrewd old fellow that Beaeonfle'id is ! Not oDly did he buv the Suez Caoal, and fortify it, and 'place it in English hands, but he also opened a land highway to tbe Eist." It will come you to ba an iron-girdled earth .