SAN FRANCISCO STEAMERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 14, 29 April 1871, Page 1

SAN FRANCISCO STEAMERS.

The advantage of New Zealand being made the terminus of the San Francisco steamers, as Mr Stafford Said in the House is “ intelligible,” although it is not very “ iutelligible” how he could say at Timaru only a few months afterwards that “ they might just as well be ten thousand miles away for any good they could do to Port Chalmers.” When Wellington was merely a “ port of call” for the Panama steamers, we all know that they did rather more good than if . they had been “ ten thousand miles away ! ” Our neighbors in Australia labor under the delusion of thinking that whichever port js made the terminus will thereby secure a real “ good.” We confess that we are foolish enough to agree with, them: and while we admit that the colony at large will be benefited by the contract just formed by the Hon. the Postmaster-General, we only wish we could nave derived more direct bene-

fit from it, by having the terminus here. But because the Assembly put it out of the power of Mr Vogel to make Wellington the terminus, we are not going to deny the benefit he has conferred upon the colony at large in haring secured a “ terminal” service. The Sydney Mercantile “ Advertiser,” a paper that takes a very business-like view of this and other questions--advocates Mr Hall’s new line on this very ground. After enumerating the many and great advantages it vvould have as a mail and passenger service, and as securing to the port of Sydney nearly all the rapidly, growing trade of the Fijis, and Sandwich Islands, it says—Besides bringing ns into regular and intimate intercourse with these rising communities in the Pacific, it would give us, in common vyjth thd other colonies, the best means of postal communication with the United States, the Dominion’ of Canada, aud with all parts of the American continent. But the port of. Sydney would be the Australian terminus of the line, and its disbursements in our community would necessarily be so cohsiderable, that the impetus which would be given to trade i>y the monthly arrival and departure of the steamers would of itself, to leave out of our calculation the advantages already enumerated, almost justify our granting our share of the joint subsidy which is required' We have made some inquiries on this head, atad we are satisfied that the expenditure in .Sydney on account of the service would he little short pf £IOO,OOO per annum. The monthy disbursements would be at least £1,700 for coals, £BQO for marine stores, £I,BOO for wages, £1,200 for repairs, £2OO for insurance, £l,lOO for victualling passengers and crews. Other incidental expenses, we are assdred, would bring the yearly total to near £IOO,OOO ” Our contemporary could scarcely have seen Mr. Stafford’s speech at Timaru or he would, not have added :—** We can hardly believe that any person connected with the direction of affairs, if he has the slightest pretensions to statesmanship, will be insensible to these great and palpable advantages.” Another ' contemporary (the Melbourne “Argus”) also shares in this wide-spread delusion, for he pertinently remarks :—“ Whichever community has the sagacity and forethought to make its chief port the entrepot for American commerce, will take and maintain the lead of all the rest. Our friends in Sydney are farsighted enough to discern this, and a resolution was accordingly adopted by the Chamber of Commerce affirming the desirability of a subsidy being granted to a mail service via Fiji, and appointing a deputation to wait upon the Government with a view to pressing the subject upon its attention.” But as to Hall’s line itself he evidently, thinks they are not “ far-sighted ” enough. He says When the supporters of the undertaking descend to details, we are sorry to observe a disposition to make small local interests dovetail wiuh the broader and greater interests of the whole community. It seems to be considered almost as a sine qua non that the boats of the A.S.N. Company should be employed in this service. They are confessedly unsuitable for it, both as regards speed and passenger accommodation, but these objections are to be temporarily met, and perhaps partially obviated, by expending £5,000 upon each boat, in order to enlarge the cabins and improve the ventilation. ‘ With these improvements,’ writes our Sydney correspondent, ‘ the boats will be equal to the requirements of the service for at least two years.’ But if the line is to become popular as a passenger line, it can only do so by presenting to travellers the same commodiousness and comforts to be met with on board the P. and O. Company’s boats. In that case there is a reasonable presumption that most persons visiting Europe from Australia,

or vice versa , would select the American route, either going or coming, so as to secure the utmost variety* of'scenery and incident on the trip.” Nay, if we are to believe Mr Hall, this foolish notion of some great “ good” arising from a terminal service has actually taken possession of the minds of the Cabinet Ministers of Victoria and New Zealand ; for at the meeting above referred to, he stated that he had' been offered a liberal subsidy by the Government of Victoria, provided Melbourne were made the terminus of tHe line,* and that he had received the ptomise of an annual grant .of £45 ,000-front -New Zealand, if Dunedin were selected for that purpose.

On the one side, then, namely,That these steamers might just as well beaten thousand fiiiles away for any good' they could do to a place, we have the unsup* ported dictum of one man (Mr Stafford); on the other we have the concurrent judgments of the and tfie CabihOts/both' of AiustMiland New Zealand* corroborated by tfie? experience, we venture to say, of every business man, and every wages’ receiver in this very port of Wellington ! We confess that we cannot go the length of saying thatweWouldratherbe f ivrbng with with all the world) 1 We ihrajgnot only opinions, but facts, are agaifist him. It may be that “ these vessels are; about 45 feet to wide too enter the Dock at Port Chalmers” (although we shrewdly suspect there is some exaggeration ih the statement)*; but we have tod vivid a recollection of the trade caused by the Panama steamers here, without even an apology for a dock, to be easily convinced that “ they might jusfcss Well be ten thousand miles away for any good they could do to Port Chalmers!.”

Our evening contemporary for a wonder agrees with us in thinking that in the new postal contract Mr Vogel has made a very good bargain for the colony. Nay, the reshit he arrives at is that the ntiws is too good to be true. Mr Collie, whose “ accurate statements” (flatly contradicted by letters printed in Hansard) he relies on, “ demanded for a service to Australia, calling at Wellington, £l6o,oooand “ by the present contract Mr Webb is to have the same ships make thirteen complete trips from San Francisco to Dunedin and back, calling at four ports each way, and to have another steamer of equal power to make thirteen complete trips from Auckland to Sydney and back, all for the sum of £50,000 a year.” The conclusion he arrives at is that Mr Vogel has displayed consummate ability in arranging so favorable a contract. Oh ! no ; “ the only conclusion” it “ can arrive at is that the whole thing is a carefully devised sham, never intended to be carried out." “ The vessels may as well, be a thousand miles away for any good they could do,” says Mr Stafford : they are to do too much goo 4 for the money, says the “ Post“that, we believe we shall never see them—they will keep ten thousand miles away.” At the risk of being again called “ insane” we repeat that we believe in the contract, even although it is so favorable, and that we expect to see the Nevada riding at the Queen’s Wharf in a fortnight. Whether it will do any “ good” to Port Chalmers will soon be made manifest. A pious minister of Barra Nvas wont publicly to pray that if it was the Lord’s will that ships should be wrecked at all, that He would send them to the coast of Barra. We hope nothing may go wrong with these magnificent ships of Mr Webb; but if they suffer any damage from being sent to Port Chalmers, we only hope he will send them to the port of Wellington. We are confident that we should derive more good from them than if they were “ten thousand miles away.”