SHORT CUTS TO AMERICA.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 703, 28 April 1852, Page 3

SHORT CUTS TO AMERICA.

[From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.] The prodigious progress of steam navigation is daily opening up new views of maritime communication. It is confidently stated, that with the aid of the railway across Panama, to be completed next summer, it will be possible to reach New Zealand from Liverpool in about thirty-four days. The Pacific, which has hitherto been comparatively untravelled, will then be opened up in all directions to steam transit ; for the Panama railroad may be said to be the key by which that vast and placid ocean is to be permanently unlocked. There is a great future for the Pacific, and all its is. lands and coasts. The western seaboard of North America will in particular and more immediately profit by the changes now in course of operation. It will be about as easy to reach California from England as it is now to get to New Orleans. The great movements of the western world are beginning to stir men up to consider the means of crossing the Atlantic in the shortest possible space of time. At present the voyage from Liverpool extends from about eleven to fourteen days according to the port to be reached. Halifax, in Nova Scotia, is the nearest point aimed at. But the route chosen seems to admit of considerable and advantageous variation. The voyage from Liverpool direct to Halifax possesses the merit of being continuous. On settling in a berth in England, there is no shifting till we set foot in America; and the comfort of this arrangement will always command attention, for nothing worries a traveller so much as shifting his person and luggage into new vehicles. In this, however, as in all other matters, it may be necessary to compromise a little. There will probably be some who will agree to sacrifice the comfort of going in one vessel, in order to save two or three days in point of time, A saving in this respect may be made on both sides of the Atlantic. Liver', pool is not the nearest point of the British Islands to America : neither is Halifax the nearest point of Ameiica, Ireland lies nearer America than England, and Cape Breton is nearer Europe than Nova Scotia. From Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, to Halifax is 2120 miles, and to Sydney is 1950 miles. By adopting the shortest of these routes, a saving of time will be effected. It is, therefore, proposed to establish a station for ocean steamers at a suitable point on the coast of Galway, whence vessels would at once shoot directly across the Atlantic—thus avoiding all the entanglements of the Channel. A public meeting, we observe, has been held in Dublin to promote transit to America by this shortened route. Travellers will be conveyed by rail from London to Holyhead; thence by steamer in

four hours to Dublin ; from which the journey by tail to Gul way will occupy about half a day. The inconveniences of these shifts is obvious ; but for mads the route, with all its changes, is exceei.ingly ap* ropria’e, an 1 will at least be put to tiie test. Should the shifts prove a serious obstacle, or prevent a paying traffic, what is to hinder the west coast of Scotland beimr adopted for the point of departure across the Atlantic r Already a line oi railway* is made several miles from Glasgow in this direction, and if desired it could be extended to Cantire or some other available station on the west coast. It is, however, premature to consider any such scheme. In all likelihood the route across Ireland will, on various grounds meet every immediate requirement; and we trust that it will meet with very general support—the improvement of the country through which it passes being in itself an object of no mean concern. Of the pi act icability* of making Cape Breton the station of arrival in America little is known on this sideof the Atlantic. The circumstances of Cape Breton being an island has hitherto stood in the way of any consideration of the subject. The time would appear to have come when nothing is to be left uninvestigaUd. Sydney, tne chief town and port in Cape Breton, in public meeting assembled, has put forward its claim as a transatlantic packet-station. From the port there is to be a railway through the island to the Gut of Canso ; the narrow channel—only a mile and a half broad—is to be bridged oy a floating platform for carriages, as is now done at the Firth of Tay ; and having gained the mainland, the carriages would pass on by rail—on the one hand towards Canada, and on the other towards the United States’ We confess that this design is rather taking, when a matured consideration is given to ail the relative circumstances. There are points in Cape Breton nearer to Europe than Sydney, but objections as regards their approachableness in all seasons can be stated against them. Of all the ports in this quarter of the American sea-board, Sydney is must free of fogs and floating ice. Suppose a steamer to run at anaverage speed of 300 miles per day, Sydney can be reached from Galway m Ireland in’ six days twelve hours. This does not leave much time in favour of the former, reckoning the few hours that will requite to be consumed by rail and the passage across the Gut of Canso.—But Sydney is alleged to have the advantage of accessibility, and to be preferable as a coaling station. I.et us hear what is said by the Committee appointed at the above-mentioned meeting. If it be assumed that a large steamer goes at the rate of 300 miles a-dav, she would consume /GO tons of coal from Galway to New York. “If the vessel made Sydney a port of call, 500 tons only would suffice; she would consequently have room to bring an additional freight ot 200 tons of goods, which at £7 per ton would be £l4OO sterling clear gain to the owners or charterers as the case may be. On the vessel s arrival here, the passengers mav proceed by railway, while the vessel can take in a sufficiency of coal to carry her to New York and back to Sydney—say 500 tons will be required for the return vovage to Galwav*. The /GO tons necessary* for the return voyage will cost at Sydney £350, if purchased at New Yoi k it would be £lO5O, making a saving bv calling at Sydney to coal of £7OJ ; this added to the £l4OO additional freight earned will make a clear gain of £2lOO sterling upon one complete voyage from Galway to New York and back via Sydney, any additional freight shipped at New York not included. Consequently a steamer making six voyages in the eight mouths via Sydney would earn at least £12,600 more than if she went by the present direct route to and from New York.”

All this may be true as regards comparison with New York, but not so clear what the difference would be as regards Halifax. Butting that out of view, we pass on to what is maim tamed to be a highly favourable feature of Sydney—namely, its eligibility as a port of debarkation for emigrants going to Canada. “The number of emigrants from Ireland alone embarked at Liverpool in the last year has been stated to be 163,000 ; and it has been also asserted tnat the privations and sufferings of those unfortunate people • beggar belief:’ it has been compared to the ‘ slaver’s middle passage.’ No question can exist that large nunibeis of persons cooped up in any ordinary pas-senger-ship no matter how well regulated—must, on a tedious voyage of six or eight weeks’ duration, undergo great suffering. When the voyage is extended beyond this period, and the emigrant is in one of those crazy old ships of which so many* have run into Sydney in distress, it becomes perfectly horrible, and common humanity suggests some other means of transport. It has been proposed to employ large and powerful steamers to supersede the sailing vessels entirely ; these running to the North American possessions in six or seven days would do so effectually. So safe and rapid a passage cannot anywhere else be accomplished, as a mere glance at the position of Cape Breton, on the map of North America, must convince the most superficial observer. It could not be more favourably situated, being at the utmost within two days by steam of all the following ports: —St. John’s, Quebec, Charlottetown, Prince Edward’s Island. Picton, Halifax, Shediac, Richibuctoo, Miramichi, the Bay of Chaleur, and all the other ports of the colonies bordering on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Immigrants usually come out during the summer months—that is, from April to November—when the harbour of Sydney, as well as all the ports and rivers in the gulf are open. The entire absence of fog is an important consideration for a vessel making the land crowded with hundreds of human beings; whilst the safety and rapidity of the voyage must induce many to emigrate who have hitherto been deterred by the barbarities and sufferings attendant on an ordinary sailing passage, and the numerous accidents which have, season after season, always occurred on the coast of America. If Sydney were made the port of call for these vessels, anv passengers, mails, or freight, for ports i:i Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or Prince Edward’s Island, might be forwarded by one or two smaller steamers employed for that purpose, which would be also useful in securing return passengers and freight, whilst the larger vessel proceeded onwaid to Quebec with the great bulk cf her passer gers and cargo. A

great saving both of fuel and time would be secured by adopting this method. Assuming that a steamer, as has been before stated, consumes 700 tons of coal on a voyage from Galway to Quebec or New York, she will require only 500 tons to bring her to Sydney, and consequently can carry at least 300 additional emigrants ; which at £7 per head, would make the proceeds of the voyage £2IOO over and above those of any direct voyage. Besides, on her return, say from Quebec, fuel would be laid in at Sydney, at 10s. per ton, whilst at Quebec it would cost 20s. per ton. It is therefore evident that by making Sydney a port of call, a vessel employed during the summer months, and making six voyages to Quebec, would earn £15,000 over and above any similar vessels going direct from Ireland to Quebec or New York. It is also an important consideration in connection with steam navigation to Quebec, that Sydney is open earlier in the spring and later in the fail than any of the ports higher up the Gulf of St. L awrence. Another object of paramount importance the Sydney route will secure:—Telegraphic lineswill be established in the course of the present summer between Sydney and Picton in Nova Scotia, where continuous lines of telegraph are already in operation ; so that for at least 8 months in the year the European news reaching Sydney in six-and-a-half days from Galway may be telegraphed to all parts of the American continent fully twenty-two hours in advance of that forwarded by any' other route, whilst much later intelligence can be sent on to Europe by I any United States steamer coaling here. To a I steamer from Quebec it would give intelligence forty-eight hours later than any she could carry from that port.” ’ i Here we may stop. The subject is of vast public concern, and no doubt will engage serious attention. The foregoing bints therefore, as opening the way, may not be useless. i