STEAM COMMUNICATION.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 601, 7 May 1851, Page 4

STEAM COMMUNICATION.

[From the Daily News."] A new era in ocean steam navigation is being opened by the extended use of the screw propeller. For some time screw steamers have been regularly running between English and Irish ports, to Dutch ports, and to the Mediterranean, in immediate competition with paddle steamers. In every case the ‘‘ screws ” have been found to keep time on their voyages as regularly as the “paddles;” in some instances have outstripped them in speed, and they have been made to pay as independent mercantile speculations, even when running against the steamers of companies sustained by mail contract. On Wednesday, at 11 p.m., the Geneva, screw propeller, arrived at Liverpool, in 5 days 22 hours from Gibraltar, having left that place two days after the Iberia, which reached Southampton with the mails yesterday at noon. The use of the screw propeller is about to be extenGed to the navigation of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Indeed a screw steamer has been plying for some time between the Clyde and New York, and one other at least between Panama and San Francisco. On the 15th of next month the General* Scrlw Steam Navigation Company will begin to cairy the mails regularly to the Cape of Good Hope; the Royal Mail Company is pre-

paring to ran propellers to Brasil Peninsular and Oriental are having’twn. * propellers built. * We repeat that it ia obvi jus f roa n facts that a new era in ocean iteatn navi tion is commencing. We believe that b*' for the injudicious interference of Gove ment with its mail contract system; the 0,1 vigation of the ocean by paddle steam o** 0 ** might ere this have been rendered' a*!? supporting. The company which the Great Western and Sirius calculjJ upon making their enterprise pay by a 4 carriage of light high priced goods, gers, and mercantile correspondence. Tk' Post Office interfered to prevent their ci? rying letters, but nevertheless their voyaJ were remunerative, till the Cunard steamer by the assistance of their mail contract, dr#?, them from the field. Of courae since th contract syatem has been adopted, supported steamers have had no chance against the steamers of companies receiv. ing large annual grants from and thus the possibility of making oceu navigation by paddle steamers lemunera. tive has been left in some degree ot doubt But that the screws can be made to pay j 5 certain.

On a long voyage, especially when a p ttt of it lies through the region of the trade, the screw propeller can be made to maintain an average speed at least equal to that of paddle steamers. The paddle steamer, when the coaling stations are at considerable distances, is of necessity too deep in the water at first, and too high out of the water at last, to admit of the full power of her paddles being brought into play. Unless when the wind is right a head, or right a stern, one paddle is more deeply immersed than the other, which of necessity diminishes the velocity. The power of the screw is equal, whatever the trim of the vessel or the direc. tion of the wind. And the build of tb screw steamer being that of the very finest sailing vessels, in the regions of the tradei she is independent of steam. The screw propeller is, on long voyages, equally cet. tain in its times of arrival with the paddle steamer ; it consumes less coal; and it has more space left for freight or passengers. When monthly communications shall have been established between England and the Cape of Good Hope, by means of screw propellers, steam navigation will have reached half-way to Australia. From Madeira to Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, sera propellers would be able to make almost uninterrupted use of their sails. Steam communication with Australia might thus be established with comparative ease, upon a system that would enable passengers to reach that remote continent without the annoyance of trans-shipment, and for charges little it anything higher than what are now paid ii sailing vessels. Again, the Cape once reached, the extension of the line’s operations is Mauritius, Ceylon, Calcutta, and the Eastern Archipelago will soon follow. The public will then have the benefit of competitive is the Indian Seas. Even at present gentitmen bringing their families home from generally take the route of the Cape on e<* nomical considerations; were steam communication from India by way of the Cape fairly established, it is no exaggeration to say to not one passenger in a hundred would tab the overland route.

But to accelerate the attainment of these advantages for the public, the system of to' contracts must be revised and modified. A* the law at present stands the Post office compel any vessel to carry a mail bag, pay 1 -®! the owners only a small per centage of th postage. The consequence is that mail b$ entrusted to vessels not having contract carrying the mails are carelessly looked if* The Post office charges the public much o® 9 for the carriage of their letters than ft' $ those who carry them. Nor is this all > • steamers having contracts for carryi B g* mails are paid much more than the p amounts to. If the Post-office would all steamers or other vessels carrying bags the full postage, it would become 880 ject with their owners to carry them. „ numeration would become an estimates of freight; They would exert th vjr laying vS SWIU sna yjjl and by taking care of the mails to 88M preference in carrying them. The P B would thus he relieved from the enorino 11 ’ penditure under the mail contracts; 88 field of ocean steam navigation would be lBl open to free competition.