STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH THE WEST INDIES AND PACIFIC. [From the Times, November 2.] Southampton, Oct. 30.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 495, 1 May 1850, Page 3

STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH THE WEST INDIES AND PACIFIC. [From the Times, November 2.] Southampton, Oct. 30.

In the Times of October 22, we published a statement showing the saving in distance and time that could be effected by an alteration in the routes of the West India mail steamers to and from the Gulf of Mexico, by avoiding the port of Mobile. Such statement likewise exhibited the cause of decline in the extent of passenger traffic, and the still more prejudicial effects which may be anticipated to follow a persistence in the existing plan, by reason of the active competition organized by lines of American mail steamers. These remarks embraced only the monthly Mexican Gulf route, and did not refer to the separate monthly communication now kept up by the Royal West India mail steamers, between England, Panama, and the Pacific. The importance of the latter route demands a distinct notice, particularly when viewed in connexion with the lines of American steam ships in existence and in contemplation, and also as regards the importance, in a national point of view, of the line to and from the Isthmus of Panama, across which a vast and increasing amount of traffic must flow to and from the gold regions of California, the west coast of America, the numerous ports in the Pacific, and probably from Australia and NewZealand. Before alluding more particularly to this branch of the subject it should be premised that the scheme of communication established and kept up by the West India mail steamers is not a mere semi-monthly mail to. and from the British ultra-marine possessions, but comprehends a T/ide-spread Atlantic communication between Europe and the French, Danish, Spanish and Dutch West India colonies, with the island of Hayti, Mexico, the Central American States of Nicaragua, Yucatan, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Columbia, and via Chagres and Panama with New Grenada, California, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chili. The communications regularly maintained may be classed as follows :—: — Mexico (including Vera Cruz and Tampico), Mobile, Havannab, St. Jago de Cuba, Hayti, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Honduras, Porto Rico, San Juan, Nicaragua, Carthagena, Santa Martha Laguayra, Chagres, Panama, and the Pacific ports of the states of Chili, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. The British colonies of Jamaica, Demarara, Trinidad, Tobago, St. Vincent, Barbadoes, Grenada, St. Lucia, Dominica, Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitt's, and Tortola, the Danish islands St. Thomas and St. Croix, the French Antilles, Guadeloupe, Martinique, &c, the colony of Cayenne, via Demerara and Dutch Guiana. Neither must the regular intercolonial communication supplied to the West India colonies, nor in some instances, the beneficial intercourse afforded to a few of those islands with the mainland, be omitted in the estimate of the extent of this scheme. It will, of course, be apparent in the application and working details of so comprehensive and intricate a plan, that all the interests

concerned cannot be equally well served, and that certain colonies and seats of trade may complain that their particular interests are only imperfectly protected. Tbe little island of Montserrat, for example, on a recent occasion petitioned, complaining that a direct communication was not kept up between it and tbe mother country. Jamaica loudly complains of the injustice of its mails having to be be conveyed to Havannah, Nassau, and Bermuda, while it has been found hitherto impossible to accommodate Jamaica with an unbroken route to England, for many reasons, one of them being the comparatively isolated geographical position of the island, which lies out of the regular track of the mail to the other colonies. Whatever plan may be adopted, it is clear that some complaints will be provoked from tbe clashing interests of small and relatively unimportant places, each anxious to possess the short cut to and from Great Britain. The more important ports, colonies, or states, should therefore receive the greatest amount of convenience, and the communication with such places should be facilitated to the utmost extent, while the smaller or less important places should be subordinate to the general scheme, and be accommodated with the supplementary or branch lines, in conjunction with the main artery of communication. One of tbe greatest faults of the existing arrangements for conveying and delivering the mails is that no through or trunk line for direct communication has been laid down and adhered to, to which all other lines of intercolonial or branch mails should be tributary, and therefore, while several important places have been but indifferently served, numbers have been badly accommodated, and but few properly attended to. These, however, it must be fully understood, are faults rather of the plan of routes than of the steamers or the company, as, with fey exceptions, the West India mail service has been generally performed with tbe stipulated regularity, and with more than the speed and rapidity contracted for. Since the first concession of the mail contract to the West India Steam Company circumstances have arisen which attach to certain places greater importance than they at one time possessed, and which would seem to render some changes desirable, in order that the interests of the British steatrers may not be permitted to suffer, and that this new and formidable opposition of a rival power in the steam carrying trade of the New World should not completely divert and absorb the legitimate traffic pertaining to the British steamers. There is no part of the South American continent to which these remarks apply with so much force as to the Isthmus of Panama, now becoming the great high road for traffic to and from the whole of the western coasts of both North and South America. We purpose, therefore, in the subjoined remarks, to set forth the exact position of British steam enterprise in connexion with this portion of the globe, and to exhibit some of the causes which at present produce the inconvenient and anomalous results that British steamers are frequently anticipated by the American rival lines, and that mails, passengers, and intelligence, reach England via New Y»rk, from certain points of the West Indies and South America, more quickly than they can be brought by the so-called steamers. Assuming that from the Isthmus of Panama to England should be considered a main trunk line, say from Chagres to Southampton, we find the existing routes are as follows :—: — HOMEWARD. Miles. Steamer stops. Chagres to Carthagena 280 1 day. Carthagena to Kingston (Jamaica) 470 2£ days. Jamaica to Jacmel (Hayti) 255 I day. Jacmel to San Juan (Porto Rico) 388 | day. Porto Rico to St. Thomas ... ... 65 2 days. St Thomas's to Fayal 2,249 1 day. Fayal to Southampton 1,373 Total distance, Isthmus to Southampton s,oBo— oeeupying 32 to SS days, including the stoppages above referred to. One glance at this statement of tbe indirect route, and frequent stoppages of the Royal ■ mail steamers, will fully account for the reason why American steamers taking a direct route, as follows, are enabled to anticipate them : — _ Days. Chagreg to Jamaica , 3 Jamaica to New York 7 New York to Liverpool \" 12 22 Add for detention at Jamaica 1 Average detention at New York, by reason of intermediate arrivals 3 Total, Chagres to Liverpool via New York 26 or a saving in time of from 7 to 10 days. It cannot therefore be astonishing that the New York route is to be preferred. What passenger would' not wish to shorten his lea voyage a week or ten days ? Will the great bulk of the mercantile interest direct correspondence to be sent by the lengthened route, V7hen their communications through other i channels will reach their destination upwards of a week in advance of the British steam-

ers ? and will not the valuable freights of gold, silver, cochineal, &c, soon follow in the ! track of the mails and passengers to New York, as being the safest and quickest mode of transmission to England ? The West India steamers leave Chagres with an average freight of 1,000,000 of dollars (frequently more) for England. This amount may be expected shortly to be very much augmented by the supplies of gold from the Californian mines, and no doubt each monthly steamer will soon be enabled to embark from 1,000,000 to 4,000,000 of dollars in specie and bullion for delivery at the Bank of England. Can it be expected, ■ therefore, that the merchants owning such valuabl* remittances will permit their treasure to be shipped by the West India steamers, which, with these large sums on board, stay idling by the way a day at Carthagena; : two, three, and sometimes four days at Jai maica ; a quarter of a day at Hayti and Porto Rico ; two days at St. Thomas's, and ; so on, when the insurance risk is greatly increased ? And is it not natural to expect that the New York route, so much shorter and more rapid, will completely supersede the present West India plan of intercourse with the isthmus, uuless an alteration be speedily and effectually applied ? . A remedy may be devised whereby the whole of these evils might be removed, and the traffic now almost entirely lost to or leaving the West India steamers completely restored. Such a desirable consummation can only be brought about by, — first, a change of route with fewer stoppages ; second, the employment of steamers of greater power and speed to perform the Atlantic voyages. If the West India steamers were allowed to take a direct route, as follows :—: — Chagres to St. Thomas's 1,120 milrg. St. Thomas's to Fayal 2,249 „ Fayal to Southampton 1,373 „ The total distance from Chagres to Southampton would he, 5ay........ 4,742 miles. And the distance saved thus : — Chagres to Southampton via Jamaica, Jacmel, Porto Rico, St. Thomas's and Fayal 5 080 miles. Chagres to Southampton via St. Thomas's and Fayal 4,742 „ 338 miles. By employing steamers of the Cunard class, say with a proportion of 700 to 800-horse power to a burden of 2,000 tons, capable of maintaining a minimum average speed of 10 knots, the through voyage from Cbagres to Southampton could be performed in 21 to 23 days, including the necessary stoppages for coaling at Fayal and St. Thomas's, and thus a fortnight or ten days would be the real saving in time, while the New York route would he surpassed in regard to the economy of time effected. The only alteration in the present arrangements necessary to guard against a derangement in the intercolonial service would be the necessity of having a branch steamer to bring up mails from San Juan Nicaragua, Carthagena, Jamaica, &c, to St. Thomas's by the vessel from Demerara with the Homeward. Windward, and Leeward mails, as at present. Jamaica would not be prejudiced by this arrangement, as that island would have the same accommodation as at present, while the employment of more rapid steamers would bring that place to within 17 to 19 days' voyage ot England vid St. Thomas's, instead of 22 to to 26 days, as at present.

to the isthmus, occupying 35 to 36 days, when if the principle of a through or trunk line, vid St. Thomas's, were adopted, to which other lines should be tributary, the distance would be 4,742 miles, occupying 22 or 23 days, thus ' effecting a saving in distance of 1,108 miles, j and 10 or 12 days in time, which would be principally accomplished by the fewer stopages and superior speed of steamers under the new regulations thus assumed. To conform to this arrangement the Pacific Steam Navigation Company's ships might leave Valparaiso about eight or ten days later than at present, to be in time at Panama for the steamers leaving this side of the isthmus for England, and it may be estimated that the general mail service from all parts of the West ladies aud South America would be accelerated from seven to ten days, and the course of post shortened 14 to 20 days, thus bringing the correspondence with all the ports embraced in the scheme into a much shorter general communication with Europe. That some arrangement, of which this is an outline, will be indispensable, if the Royal Mail Company intends to secure the traffic between England and the greater part of the New World, must be perfectly evident. .The

matter speaks for itself. A week's priority in mercantile correspondence is an age, during which a fortune may be made or lost, and if the present slow,, conveyances are continued, with their circuitous route, aad perpetual stoppages, the whole of the malls,- passengers, and specie from the West Coast of America and some parts. of the West Indies will be lost to the Royal Mail Company, whose ships will be almost entirely superseded by the American steamers. In a national point of view Great Britain cannot afford that the advantages of a communication primarily opened and established by herself, and so essential to her own mer cantile prosperity, should be diverted into another md a rival channel, precisely at a juncture when the intercourse has become, and is likely to become, increasingly remunerative and important. The prosperity of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, nay, its very existence, is bound up in this question, and it must rise or fall exactly in proportion to its efforts to retain the traffic legitimately and properly its due. Unless some alterations are made the English steamers, compared with the American ships will, in railway parlance, be slow Parliamentary trains running against express mails, the former defeating their own object by continual and vexatious stoppages, the latter distancing their competitors by their extreme rapidity and celerity. That this climax is likely to result may be gathered from the immense efforts now making by the Americans to increase and. extend their mercantile steam marine. The building yards of New York are filled with stupendous steamers in course of construction, and already many have commenced running. The line of steamers between Panama and San Francisco has been eminently successful. The same may be said of the vessels running in conjunction with them on the side of the isthmus from Chagres to New York, the steamers Falcon, Crescent City, and Empire City. While writing this your correspondent has before him a description of the American steam ship Ohio, the pioneer of a mail line of five gigantic ships intended to maintain a weekly communication between New York and the isthmus of Panama, vid Havannah, in direct competition with the West India steamers. The Ohio is of 2,600 tons burden, and 1,000 horse power. She sailed from New York on her first voyage on the 20th of September, and returned on the 15th of October full of passengers and with a considerable amount of specie. The Georgia, a sister ship, is nearly ready for sea, and the other three are preparing. All these ships are to attain a speed of 11 knots, and will have accommodation for 25 0 passengers. The present West India steamers are beautiful models of naval architecture, and in regard to their management and sea-going qualities may be said to be unsurpassed. When they were constructed in 1841 and 1842 it was not considered desirable to proportion so great an amount of horse power to tonnage as subsequent successful experiments have demonstrated to be both safe and prudent for Transatlantic voyaging. The consequence is that, compared with certain Atlantic steamers, they are somewhat deficient in speed, and several of them will not average more than from seven to eight knots. Recent improvements in the boilers and machinery of others, such as the Medway, the Thames, Clyde, Avon and Severn, have augmented their speed, and these vessels aro capable, under favourable circumstances, of making eight to ten knots per hour. Such a speed is, however, manifestly insufficient to meet the present requirements of ocean steaming when exposed to powerful competition. To effect an independent communication with Mexico and the West Indies vid Bermuda and Havannah, on the one hand, and the West Indies and the Pacific on the other, with such rapidity as is indispensable to compete successfully with the American steamers, new ships of the class now running between Liverpool and New York should be employed, while the present vessels could be advantageously provided with employment on the intercolonial or branch services, in conjunction with the main lines. This subject acquires additional importance, and the necessity of an independent trunk line to the Isthmus of Panama (to which the other lines should be feeders), and which should be carried out by steam ships of greater power, is the more apparent, when taken in connexion with the disposition of the Government to extend steam communication to South Australia and New Zealand by way of Panama, | in preference to the originally contemplated route vz<£ Southampton, Alexandria, and Singapore, from the latter of which places the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company propose to extend their line to the Australian and New Zealand ports. It is understood that the Government will shortly be prepared to receive tenders for conveying these mails by either of the two routes referred to. The respective distances are estimated as nearly as possible as follows :—: —

ISTHMtfS OF SUES ROUTE. j Mfleff. Southampton to Gibraltar 1,150 Gibraltar io Malt* 1 1,032 Malta to Alexandria . J .*? 868 Alexandria to Aden . .;. 1,600 Aden to Ceylon 2,150 Ceylon to Penang 1,200 Penang to Singapore 500 Singapore to Batavia.'... 600 Batavfa to Torres Straits 2,400 Torres Straits to Sydney 1,800 > Total— Southampton' to Sydney 13^288 To which add,— Sydney to' port Nicholson (New Zealand) . . 1,200 Malting a total of from (England to Australia' and New Zealand . .: 14,48(7' The present voyage from Southampton to Singapore occupies 45 days, and, supposing the remainder of the distance to be performed by steamers at an average minimum speed of 8 knots, the total voyage would occupy (in* eluding stoppages), say 80 to 84 days. The Panama route would stand thus—" Miles.Southampton to Fayal 1,37$ Fayal to St.- Thomas's 2,24ff St. Thomas's to Chagres 1,120' Panama to Tahiti 4,480 Tahiti to Port Nicholson (New Zealand) 2,280 Port Nicholson to Sydney 1,200 Southampton to Port Nicholson and Sydney 12,702 The distances used as above from Panama to Australia, are not calculated for the great circle, but the shortest distance, or the track which a steamer would probably pursue. This r however, would necessarily be modified by the prevailing winds. From Panama to Tahiti the winds would generally be favourable — from Tahiti to Port Nicholson less so. Reversing the rule for opposite directions, different courses might be taken at various seasons, Presuming the voyage from Southampton to the Isthmus of Panama to occupy 23 days, and that the distance from Panamabe accomplished at an average speed of eight knots (as allowed to the steamers from Singapore), and allowing for the necessary stoppages, the voyage throughout would be performed in 68 to 72 days, or on the voyage from England to New Zealand and Australia showing a saving of 2186 miles in distance, and of 10 to 13 days in time. It is, of course impossible to state with any degree of correctness which of the two routes, on the whole, possesses the greatest advantages, or which will ultimately be preferred, but of the Panama plan it may be said that not onlydoes it offer the advantage of being the shortest, straigbtest, and most direct tract to the Australasian colonies, but also that th^ difficulties and dangers of the navigation are far less, when contrasted with the dangers and intricacies of the navigation from Singapore to Sydney, northward of Australia, iucluding the coasts of New Guinea, Borneo, Timor, and Torres Straits, which would have to be traversed by the steamers connected with the Suez scheme. Reverting to our remarks on the subject of the West India steamers, it must be borne in mind that modifications and changes in their present routes, which every day's experience is showing to be more and more necessary and desirable, can only be effected with the direct sanction of the Admiralty. It is therefore to be hoped that, ere long, the circumstances enumerated, operating so disadvantageously to the interests of the British steamvessels, may bring about some alteration whereby the competition of rival lines of American steamers shall be counteracted, and the traffic conducted through its proper channel. If the Americans began late in ocean steam navigation, they have certainly made, and are making, great strides. Their efforts are not, however, to be feared, if they be met with corresponding energy and enterprise on the part of interests in this country. The Royal mail steam line must, as a necessary consequence, fall into gradual insignificance and disrepute, unless those efforts are made which the formidable opposition their ships are called upon to encounter so urgently demands. Nor can it be imagined that it will answer the purpose of the Government and the people of this country to subsidize a line of steamers to the extent of £240,000 per annum, thifiitllity of which has nearly ceased and is partially superseded. It is a struggle of British. capital and enterprise against the , energy of the Americans, and, if the former be fully and? fairly employed and skilfully developed' in its. working details, who can doubt the result irk its own legitimate sphere ? Some determination will doubtless soon betaken upon this important subject by the Admiralty, and then, armed with the needful facilities, the Royal Mail Steam-packet Company (to borrow the mode of expression frota a Transatlantic contemporary) will only have- " to put on the steam" to insure a successful result.

Miles. Southampton to Madeira... 1,287 steamer stops half a day. Madeira to Barbadoe» 2,610 — one day. Barbadoes to St. Thomas's 420 — quarter of a day. St. Thomas's to Porto Rico 65 — Porto Rico to Jacmel 388 — one day. Jacmel to Jamaica 255 — one day. Jamaica to Santa Martha... 440 — quarter of a day. Santa Martha to Carthagena 105 — half a day. Carthagena to Chagres 280 Total distance 5,850 miles from Southampton,

The route outwards to the isthmus pursued by the steamers is still more objectionable and lengthy, and, if pricked out on the map, will probably excite a smile ; it is as follows :