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New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 605, 21 May 1851, Page 2

The Return, belonging to R. Waitt, Esq., arrived on Saturday from San Francisco, having made the passage in sixty-four days, including her visit to Nelson, where she remained three days. Through the kindness of Mr. Gordon we have received a file of San Francisco papers to the 14th March containing English news to the 6th January received by way of the Isthmus of Panama but our limited space will only allow us today partially to avail ourselves of their contents. The Spray, Capt. Scott, arrived at Nelson on Thursday, the 15th inst., from Launceston, with horses and sheep and a general cargo, including eleven kangaroos for Mr. Duppa. The Government Brig arrived the same day from Taranaki, which she left on the previous Sunday. We regret to learn that the cargo of the Return, like the other shipments to San Francisco from this place, has not proved a successful speculation; we may probably take an early opportunity of adverting to some of the causes which operate to the disadvantage of the colonial shippers to this market, particularly the high rate of ad valorem duties, amounting almost to prohibition, and the ruinously high rate of shipping and other charges. It may be gratifying to our readers to know that New Zealand butter (made at Mr. Caverhill's station) in the Return obtained as high a price as any imported at San Francisco, and the market is plentifully supplied with this article from all parts of the world. The cheese made at Port Cooper also was considered equal to any at San Francisco. The English news by this opportunity is later than has been received from any other quarter, and we must not omit to direct public attention to the fact that this has occurred on every arrival from San Francisco to New Zealand. If the Australian Colonies are to be connected by Steam with the Mother Country, the route by way of the Isthmus of Panama seems on every consideration to be the preferable one, particularly to New Zealand. And now that this question seems to have excited so much interest in England, when active measures are in operation for overcoming the difficulty of communication by uniting the two oceans by means of a ship canal, an equal interest should be exhibited in this Colony in a measure more calculated to advance its prosperity than any other that could be adopted.