PROSPECTS OF THE MAIL SERVICE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 47, 16 December 1871, Page 4

PROSPECTS OF THE MAIL SERVICE.

An event of the utmost importance to all interested in this service has been celebrated within a few days. We refer to the completion of the European and North American railway connecting Halifax, Nova Scotia, with the great railway system of the United States and Canada. A glance at the railway map will show that the nearest and most direct route to England from San Francisco is via Montreal to Halifax, which, by the completion of the line referred to, makes the link complete—a grand trunk line over 4000 miles long. The opening of this line, and the new time-table to go into effect here by the overland railway, will enable the mails and passengers to go through to England from San Francisco in four (4) days less time than by the present route via New York, making the time thus : Melbourne to San Francisco - - - 32 days San Francisco to Liverpool - - -14 „ Melbourne to Liverpool - - - 46 The mails for New Zealand can be delivered in thirty-eight days from London. In reference to this great enterprise, the " New York Herald," of Oct. 20, says :—" The great Bangor celebration of Wednesday last, at which President Grant, Lord Lisgar, the GovernorGeneral of Canada, and numerous other distinguished officials, " from both sides of the line," assisted, was in honor of the United States section of the European and North American Railway to the New Brunswick frontier; Thence they have a road in operation to St John's, N. B, and thence to Shediac Bay, on the Northumberland Strait of the Gulf of St Lawrence, the strait which separates Prince Edward Island from the main land. From Shediac Bay the road, passing round the heads of both branches of the Bay of Fundy, takes a southerly direction to Halifax, N.S.; but south of Shediac Bay a small section of the road remains to be completed ; for otherwise the Bangor celebration would have been carried through in a long train or two to Halifax. This short gap will shortly be closed up, and then from New York, 944 miles, we shall have a continuous line of railway to Halifax, which will shorten the transit time between New York and Liverpool at least 36 hours or two business days. Hence the title of " the European and North American Railway" given to this line from Bangor eastward, is not inaptly applied, for it will absorb a very large proportion of the passenger traffic of the Atlantic steamers in both directions,and will make halfway house to travellers from all parts of the United States and the New Dominion, bound to Europe, and to travellers to Europe bound this way, or southward even to New Orleans, or westward even to San Francisco The road will be apt to make a prosperous city of Halifax, and and will contribute immensely to the development of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia —fields, forests, mines, and fisheries—in bringing their products so much nearer to the markets of the United States—coal, codfish, mackerel, and potatoes. But the European and North American features of the road will be the shortening of the time between New York and Liverpool two or three days.

A glance at any chart will show that the mails going direct, and not via New York, will save quite four hundred miles of distance, and time in proportion. The " signs of the times" point most favorably to the success of this great enterprise now and for the future. The present successful establishment of the New Zealand postal service is attracting the attention of Europe and America. A late number of the London " Times" expresses astonishment at the speed and regularity of the arrival of the colonial mails via the American Overland route. We say, in conclusion, let there be a unity of action, based upon large commercial ideas and pecuniary liberality, to the end that it may permanently establish the present service. —"European Mail."