THE AUSTRALIAN AND AMERICAN STEAM COMPANY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4165, 27 July 1874, Page 3

THE AUSTRALIAN AND AMERICAN STEAM COMPANY.

*—■ The following letter from the Kev. Dr. Lang, who was a passenger to San Francisco by the steamship Mikado, has been handed to the Sydney Morning Herald by the Postmaster-G-eneral for publication : —• On board the steamship Mikado, at sea, Ist May, 1874. My dear Sir, —From the kind attention yoti paid to a suggestion of mine, as an intending passenger per the steamship Cyphrenes, as well as from your official connection with this great postal line, I am induced to send you these few following observations on the subject, which have suggested themselves to me since we left Sydney. The first thing, therefore, that must strike every person is the wonderful success that has hitherto attended the line in the number of passengers it has attracted from all our Southern Colonies, notwithstanding all the disadvantages and drawbacks attending a mere trial-experiment, with suddenly extemporised and necessarily inadequate machinery for carrying it outsuccessfully. From the letter of a passenger by the steamship Tartar, to Kandavau, published in Sydney, I learnt that one-half of the passengers by that vessel were from Victoria. This of itself was remarkable testimony in favor of the new postal line, and .must have been extremely mortifying to the authorities in Victoria, after all their efforts to establish a sort of colonial supremacy and predominance for themselves through their unwarrantable and unjust monopoly of the Suez line. I have obtained from the purser of the Cyphrenes and Mikado steamships the following numerical lists of the passengers by the two different vessels on the £>resent route, with the ports they belonged to respectively both in our own Australian colonies and in New Zealand, and their different ports of destination : 1. By the Cyphrenes—

2nd. additional passengers for the Mikado, per the Mongol from New Zealand : Ist. Class. From Dunedin to Liverpool 2 Ditto to San Francisco IS. Ditto to Qucenstown.. 1 Lyttelton to Liverpool 11 Ditto to San Francisco 2 "Wellington to Liverpool 1 Ditto to San Francisco 1 Napier to San Francisco 7 Auckland to Liverpool 2 Ditto to Honolulu 3 Ditto to San Francisco G ... 51 3rd. Class. ** From Dunedin to San Francisco 7 Lyttelton to ditto 1 Napier to ditto 1 Auckland to San Francisco 3 12 54 Total CO It appears therefore from these lists that we have now on board the Mikado 103 saloon passengers, 54 of whom are from New Zealand, besides 12 seeond-class, and 3-1 J third-class passengers. And surely there can be no stronger evidence of the entire confidence of the public in all our Colonies in the practicability and success of this line than this state of thing's implies. No person could possibly have anticipated such a result, especially when the line itself was a mere trial experiment, with such inadequate machinery for carrying it out successfully as was to be obtained at its outset. The very success that has thus most unexpectedly attended it has itself greatly increased the difficulty of working the line, and will necessarily tend to diminish its popularity for a time among the public generally. For in consequence of the difficulties that have arisen and the inconvenience and hardship to which not a few of the passengers have been subjected individually, complaints have arisen and will unquestionably be transmitted to the Press, against the line in various quarters. It has been urged in certain quarters that the company ought not to have commenced the line till they have got the proper vessels for the service. But identifying myself for the moment with the authors of the line, I have replied in the words of Queen Dido to iEneas, Ees dura et regni novitas me talift cogunt. Had the line not been commenced at the advertised thno and with the appliances then obtainable, we should have been playing into the hands of our friends in "Victoria, and allowing them to be the undisputed masters of the situation. It was unfortunate, however, for the credit of the line that a much larger number of passengers should have been engaged for the through-going ship than she could properly accommodate ; and the detention of the Oyphrenes for a whole week at Kandavau I necessarily gave rise to a great number of complaints, with threats on the part of in- ' fluential people from Now Zealand to report

the state of things to the Press in that Colony, and to institute comparisons between the San Francisco and P. and 0. line not at all in favor of the former. All this, however, was to be expected at the commencement of such a line, and all the difficulties and inconveniences complained of have merely been the result of unexpected success. The grand object of the company was doubtless to keep to the advertised time, and I fear the detention of the Cyphrenes at Ivandavau will exhibit a great failure iu this respect. It was unfortunate also that the Cyphrenes was not sent on direct to San Francisco, but this could not have been effected with the large additional list of passengers from New Zealand. The general result of our experience hitherto is unquestionably that this line, when in proper working order, will be a noble line, highly popular in all our Colonies, and highly successful. The complaints now heard on all sides will soon cease, and the petty disagreeables now experienced will soon be forgotten. We sighted Savau, the westernmost of the Samoa or Navigators Islands, and I was pleased to learn from Captain Moore that it would be quite ill the way both going and coming, to touch at these islands, which will doubtless be well inclined to be brought within the mail line, if not at present, at least by-and-bye, as their European population, is somewhat considerable. Besid.es touching at such a group of islands would be very gratifying to the passengers. If Commodore Goodenough's suggestion, that the calling place at the Fiji Islands should be Levuka instead of Kandavau, to which he strongly objects be adopted, it would greatly enhance the value of the line to these important islands.—l am, &c, John Duxjiore Lang. The Hon. Saul Samuel, &c.

Sydney to Kandavan.. 1st. 1 2nd 1 Sri Adelaide to San Francisco .. Melbourne to San Francisco Sydney to ditto Ditto to New York Melbourne to Liverpool Brisbane to ditto Sydney to ditto i 1« 3 0 0 3 .. 1G 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 S 11J 0 1 0 0 49 12 22J