New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 1875.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4383, 7 April 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 1875.

Notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, there is every reason to believe that the time is not far off when the San Francisco mail service will be as reliable as that via Suez has been since the P. and 0. Company gave up the Mauritius route, and sent their steamers direct from Guile to Melbourne. This is proved by the success of the late voyage of the A.S.N. Company’s City of Melbourne, which has not been sufficiently brought under notice. It was not with satisfaction it was heard that on her outward voyage this colonial steamer succeeded in conveying the mails between Sydney, Auckland, and San Francisco four days within contract time ; and it was also received, as a not unpleasant fact, that on the return voyage she reached her port of call in New Zealand within contract time. But this was a very bald statement of the facts. The truth is that on this, as on nearly all previous occasions, there was a grievous detention of the mail between London and San Francisco. So far as the public are informed, they do not know whether this detention occurred on land or at sea ; but, at all events, it amounted to three days ; and therefore, the City of Melbourne, in delivering her mails in Auckland, as she did, some thirty or thirty-eight hours within contract time, recrossed the Pacific, gaining once more on her postal time fully four days. The mail reached Wellington, by the help of the New Zealand Steam Navigation Company, on the morning of the day it was due, being thus some twelve hours before time, and giving the merchants of the City, for once, an English mail that really alternated with that via Suez.

If this can bo done by one of tho ships of the ordinary fleet of the Australian Steam Navigation Company, who have tendered for the permanent service, what may not be done by vessels specially built for the purpose, a fleet of which is now in the market 1 The City of Melbourne was built for tho Melbourne and Sydney trade. She was regarded as a boat of only average speed, until she was taken in hand for a thorough overhaul, and was turned out with a fore-and-aft spar deck, and a four-bladed screw —a steamer fit for a trans-Pacific voyage. This last alteration seemed to have solved tho problem of how she should be driven through tho water ; for ever since then she has been known in colonial waters as a fast boat, and tho fact that she crossed the Pacific, not onco or twice but several times, at tho rate of eleven and a-half knots per hour, under thoonormousdisadvantago of carrying a quantity of coal for which she was not originally designed, may be taken merely as a proof of what can ho done. If tho A.S.N. Company obtain tho contract, they will not trust to their own vessels, though the City of Melbourne, the City of Adelaide, tho Wentworth, and tho Victoria, might bo able to carry

the mails successfully enough. They will either go iu for securing a sufficient number of the vessels built to the order of Messrs. Forbes and Hall ; or for as many new vessels of the latest class as will suffipe to carry out the service thoroughly. There have been rumors that New South Wales has been repenting of the bargain which bound her to New Zealand in this mail contract, and that she was likely to cast this colony aside to make peace once more with Victoria. The rumor, no doubt, derived strength from the misfortune which overtook the Parkes’ Government; but it is one of those of which it may safely be said “ there’s nothing in’t.” Sydney would no doubt like to see herself in possession of a line of mail steamers which would make that port their depot, without the necessity of their visiting Auckland. There is no doubt also that we, on our part, would wish to see the colony in possession of a mail service which should not contemplate the transhipment of the mails for the leading towns at Auckland, and the departure of the ocean steamer herself for a port, in another country, to refit, and replenish her stores of comestibles both for man and ship. At present, however, Sydney appears to be content to adhere to its bargain with New Zealand ; and we are not in a position as yet to throw it overboard, or to undertake an independent line for ourselves. Nor could we expect much sympathy from Victoria. She is enjoying all the advantages she hoped for from the rather selfish bargain into which she entered with the P. and O. Company. Hobson’s Bay is now the terminus of that line, and Sydney has the humiliation of receiving her mails by a branch boat. The vessels are docked, voyage after voyage, in the new Albert Graying Dock ; they are coaled and vicUialled°from Melbourne ; and the whole business of the southern end of the line is transacted, in Melbourne. There is in this a victory of a substantial character for Melbourne over Sydney—for Francis over Parkes. And the pecuniary results of the first year of the new contract have loft Victoria perfectly satisfied with the bargain into which she had entered. In this state of matters we may take heed that Victoria will be in no hurry to ask New Zealand to join with her in any scheme which would have the effect ,of altering her arrangements. It would be folly to hope that the P. and O. Company would be easily induced to send on to Port Chalmers ships that are at present debarred from going on to Sydney —for, after all the boasting of Otago, Dunedin, with Port Chalmers thrown into the bargain, is no bigger than Geelong. There is no evidence anywhere of any wish on the part of New South Wales to throw us off. So far as we are aware, the only desire of the New South Wales Government is to perfect a service that is likely to be of very great use to both colonies. The time will no doubt come when Now Zealand and New South Wales must have their separate mail services, both with America and England, but at present it is not ripe. The two colonies must for a time stand loyally together, “ shoulder to shoulder, ” and the voyage of the City of Melbourne, to which we have just made reference, is an encouragement to the belief that a joint service can be made thoroughly complete and useful for some years to come.