MAIL COMMUNICATION WITH ENGLAND.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 799, 10 December 1853, Page 3

MAIL COMMUNICATION WITH ENGLAND.

(From the Melbourne “ Argus.") In our Summary of Friday last, for the Victoria and Shanghai, we made some remarks on the monstrous folly and injustice of employing an old sailing-vessel to take mails to Sydney, for the benefit of the Australian colonies. These colonies are now second to none in importance to British commercial interests ; and if the Home Government were doing their duty, they would at once establish the mails on a system as completely efficient as the present advanced state of science and skill could accomplish. As regards the mercantile and general interests of the British Empire, the most lavish expenditure to secure the most speedy and regular communication would be economical in the end. But what have they done ? Dismayed with the protracted bunglings of one company which they never should have entered into a comL* ''*- theyran with equal absurdity into the opposite extreme, and despaired of finding any company capable of conveying a mail with decent regularity' and despatch., They advertised that they would pay 1000/. to a vessel for taking the mails for Australia to Sydney. They named Sydney as the first port of arrival, and they have taken no measures whatever in reference to a return mail from these colonics to England. We stated that the S'-ratford had not arrived at Sydney on the 17th instant, having been out 104 days. We now find that she arrived at Sydney on the 18th, and her mails having been sent to Melbourne, per Shanghai, arrived here on the 25th, exactly 112 days from London, or about double the time that a good steamer will occupy on the voyage. There is something strikingly illustrative of the follies of the system, too, in the singular coincidence that the' Shanghai, which lately dashed in, in gallant style, with our July mails, is the vessel which, on her return trip, brings us from Sydney the June mails sent by the slow-paced Stratford. But this is not what we chiefly complain of. The Post-office authorities in London seem to act according to the traditions of half a century ago, when Sydney was certainly the chief port of this hemisphere. They imagine, simple souls, that Sydney retains its relative importance, and is doomed always to retain it. How vastly they are mistaken will be apparent when we inform them that the exports of Sydney do not amount in value to one-fourth of those of Melbourne alone ; that the population of that colony does not even now exceed our own; and that the public revenue of Vicoria, like the exports, now probably quadruples that of New South Wales. And yet, according to the admirable and well-informed English authorities, Sydney should be favoured, not only to the exclusion of Melbourne, but of Launceston, Hobart Town, Port Fairy, Portland, and Adelaide, the aggregate trade of which ports would more than equal Sydney. Let us view the matter in another light. They must admit that the Australias are now equal in value to the West Indies ; yet while they expend hundreds of thousands on the West India Ma 1 steamers, they grudge more than 1000/. for an old slow, sailing vessel, to Australia ; and while they are as careful of the return mails from the West Indian Islands as they are of the outward mails they leave the Australian return mails, on the alternate month, altogether to chance. We grant that a contract has been made with the P. and O. Steam Navigation Co., for the conveyance of mails overland via India, but the Government has made such absurd restrictions in their contract, that the steam communication is neither profitable to that company, nor one-tenth so beneficial to the colonists as it ought to be. The P. and 0. Company have hitherto been prevented by their contract from keeping their vessels in the chief port of the Australian colonies more than twenty-four hours, and thus they are debarred from realising any benefits either from cargo or passengers, and frequently run away with about one-half their mails.

This Company has now secured such a reputation throughout the world for punctuality, for the comfort and convenience of their vessels, for the good treatment of passengers, for the perfection, in short, of all their arrangements, that any fair and reasonable arrangement which shall secure the permanent extension of their line to Australia, will give the highest gratification to every intelligent colonist. Of the commanders of the vessels of this Company, it is impossible to speak too highly. Captain* Farfitt, in particular, has acted throughout with such promptitude, and energy in the saving of our mails, under circumstances of peculiar difficulty, that the merchants of any other community than this would long since have taken steps to show their appreciation of his services. The only drawback connected with this service is, that proper facilities have not been afforded to this, unquestionably the leading port of the Australian colonies ; that in a steamer running in on Monday, and starting off again, on Tuesday, no opportunity was given to our merchants and others to avail themselves of the many important advantages of the most rapid mode of communication with Great Britain. The Company, in consequence of the faulty construction of their charter, has been habitually running away from good and profitable business. We have imagined Captain Parfitt the Jehu of a first-class coach, upon a principal line of road. We have pictured him driving up to the door of his place or destination, to the very .hour anointed for his arrival. We fancy him divesting himself of his drab coat of forty capes, lifting his broad-brimmed beaver, wiping his brow bronzed by a thousand storms, and throwin - down the reins ; whilst the drooping heads and quivering tails of his tucked-up steeds, show equally with the splashed condition of the vehicle, the pace at which he has driven, and the difficulties which he has had to overcome.

“ Well, Coachee !” sounds upon the ear of our imagination in the pleased voice of the chief proprietor, “up to time, as usual ! You are the best coachman on the lino, and a credit to the establishment! But where are your passengers?” “Well, Sir,” the successful Jehu replies, “ I did not get any passengers.” “Ahem I Well, pass down your luggage then.” “ Please, Sir, there was no luggage,” “No passengers,and no luggage, Coachee! Well, never mind* out with your mail-bags, before you go round to the stable.” “ Well, Sir, I am sorry to say I had to come away before the mails were made up.” This is in reality what the P. and O. Company has hitherto been doing With regard to this,, the mostimportantcolonyof the Australian group.The coachmen are not to blamed—on the ebntrarv, they, are entitled to all honour; but the system is manifently defective. * - We trust that the Home Government/by this time have become fully aware of the-relative importance of the Australian colonies, and of the individual settlements and ports. And we hope that they will At once place the mail service on such an adequate and efficient' footing that we mav have no more reason to complain than the West Indies, America, the Cape of Good Hope, and India, all of which are incorporated in an almost perfect system of mail communication, the extension of which to Australia would be easy and simple to the mother country, .and would confer on both, benefits which would a hundredfold repay any amount of temporary expenditure.