THE MAIL SERVICE WITH AMERICA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 51, 13 January 1872, Page 9

THE MAIL SERVICE WITH AMERICA.

We take the following from the "News of the World" of the 14th December :

Since the opening of our trans-con-tinental railroad the mails ha\e arrived in San Francisco with wonderful regularity, connecting with the Oakland ferry boat across the Bay at 6 p.m. every night, but the recent snow stoim on the plains has unfortunately stopped the trains for the past four days ; this fact, with the steamship on the Atlantic side being two days behind her time, consequently has necessitated the delay of the Australian steamer six days behind her regular date of sailing.

The President of the United States has recommended Congress to grant a subsidy to this line, and all parties agree that it is certain to be granted, and the mercantile interest of this country has incurred a large debt of gratitude to Messrs Webb and Holladay for opening up this great channel of commerce in anticipation of their country assisting them. Indeed there are few countries that can boast of men who are possessed of such indomitable perseverance, enterprise, and capital. The Dacotah will sail in a few days from New York for this port, and upon her arrival the ships of the line will run right through to Australia, making the time in thirty days ; in February the Halifax railroad will be opened, when the mails can be forwarded through from Australia to England in forty-five clays. It has been reported here that the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company will be competitors for the Australian mail contracts, but we are fully satisfied that the powers that rule in Australia will not grant both mail contracts to the same company, more especially to foster an opposition which would certainly prevent either company from running a first-class line. At }:>resent, if we are rightly informed, the United States, New Zealand and Australia mail line receives 75,000 dols from the United States, 25,000 dols from Hawaiian Government, and 250,000 from New Zealand annually for ten years, making a total of 350,000 dols a year. The necessity of the trade demands a line from Milford Haven to Halifax, thence by railroad to San Francisco, thence again, via the Navigator Islands, to New Caledonia, Queensland, Sydney and Melbourne, with a branch line from the Navigator Islands to Auckland. Such a line would develop the trade of the Pacific and bring us into immediate communication with all the islands of Polynesia.

Those who have advocated the route via Fiji are certainly unacquainted with the dangerous coral navigation of that group and the terrible hurricanes that blow from January to April. The loss of the Kentucky, with all on board, will be fresh in the recollection of our readers, and the loss of one or two steamships would destroy the prestige of the route. The safety of the numerous passengers that will travel by this line demands that the Fiji group shall be avoided. The vast increase in risk and insurance precludes the possibility of passing through this group for any length of time, and we earnestly hope that the Australian Government will view this question in its proper light, and not endanger life, mails, and pro-

perty by insisting upon large steamships passing through 300 miles of sunken rocks and coral reefs, visited during four months of the year by the most fearful hurricans that blow.