MAIL ROUTES TO AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5250, 21 January 1878, Page 3

MAIL ROUTES TO AUSTRALIA.

“ Anglo-Australian” in the European Mail of November the 15th says :—Now that the Victorian Government has decided to subsidise a four-weekly mail service via the Cape a few details of the existing routes may not bo out of place. It will be no news to say that tho service via Brindisi is performed by the P. and O. Company iu connection with their Bombay weekly service and the Calcutta and China fortnightly service, though this point has been often overlooked by those who have written of an accelerated speed by this route. But let us see how the matter stands by examining the details of the service by the light of facts. The Australian service being four-weekly, is so contrived as to dovetail into the Calcutta and China fortnightly service, but the branch steamer to Australia starts from Bombay so as to meet the Calcutta and China steamer at Gallo, where the mails, passengers, aud cargo are transhipped. It will thus bo obvious that to accelerate the Australian _ steamer, without any corresponding acceleration of the others, would be a useless waste of fuel. After leaving Galle, however, and being favored with light S.B. trades, tho steamer often reaches Melbourne several days before time. Then the steamer coming from Melbourne, and those calling at Aden, Suez, and Brindisi, have no inducement to make rapid runs. It is sufficient for them that they do what they have contracted to perform well aud faithfully, an(l that they arrive at their appointed stations at the time set down in the tables, and occasionally a day or two before. It is necessary to be

-.thus -quoted fto w show ‘" that s ,to Tnn: f a dine of steamers from Fuiope.via. . Egypt .and Aden direct, to Adelaide and“skleltiburiie, would cause the loss of the India and China mails, passengers, and cargo. Then if -the speed were increased so as to reduce the passage by seven days, to make it fit in with the Bombay weekly service, it is obvious,. as Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart., has often remarked, that the cost per voyage would: be greatly increased, and that there would be a large decrease in the revenue. By this process it seems clear that Australia would be cut off. from India and China, both .as'regards its mails and passenger service and its carrying trade. This would never do, for intercommunication between India, China, Batavia, Manilla, Mauritius, and Australia is now of the greatest importance, and it is not a little singular that those who have advocated the service via Aden have never, so.far as I have observed, shown us how we are to get over this difficulty. The route via Singapore has been spoken of as the natural route, but there are those who think that via Galle more reliable. Then, the determination of the .Victorian Government to detain the main line steamer at Melbourne for three weeks doing nothing is another difficulty, as the cost of coal at Melbourne, and the maintenance of a large branch steamer between there and Sydney, involves anexpenditure of say X 23,000 a year. The service to Queensland, via Singapore, is another branch of the line via Brindisi and Southampton, but, as it is a sixty days’ service to Sydney and sixty-two for Melbourne, it may, as regards increased facilities, be left out of consideration. The service via San Francisco, which was at one time very uncertain and 'unreliable, is now very regular. The mails leave London every fourth Thursday evening, and meet the Inman or White Star steamer at Queenstown on Friday, and arrive in New York the following Saturday or Smnday week, and thence to San Francisco. The time occupied is about seven days. Indeed, to bo particular, the mail generally arrives at San Francisco the Sunday after leaving New York, but is not despatched to Auckland and Sydney until the Wednesday morning ; thus two good days are lost. This being so, it is but fair to assume that steps will be taken to expedite the voyage from. Sen Francisco outwards, and so secure the delivery of the mails at Sydney in 41 or 42 days. * It may here be added that, singularly enough, the writer has just been informed by Messrs. Charles Clark and Co. that they have received instructions from the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to announce that henceforward the departure from San Francisco of the Australian steamships will be ! accelerated two days in advance of the present schedule. As the service existed prior to that change, it was almost impossible to get the mails from San Francisco to Sydney under contract time. On the homeward trip it is different, for the steamers often arrive at San Francisco on the Tuesday evening, and at latest, on Wednesday morning, when it leaves generally at 8 a.m. for New York, where itarrives the following Wednesday in time for the Cunard steamer sailing on that day. Should, however, any unforeseen delay occur, then the mails are despatched by a fast steamer leaving on Saturday, and arrive in London some days before time. The delay, therefore, between San Francisco and Sydney made it difficult to trust the mails by the two routes to alternate fortnightly, for while the outward route was the quickest for the one, the homeward route was the quickest for the other. The next line to be considered is that via the Cape, and here competition has undoubtedly led to great results, for the steamers engaged upon this route have made some capital runs. The cost, however, of a forty days’ passage must be very great, as it cannot be performed under a consumption of something like 50 tons of coal, per day. Still, and X give it on the testimony of Sir Daniel Cooper, these direct steamers are of more- importance to Australia than all the others put together. Indeed, they may be regarded as the necessary adjuncts of the development of the colonies, and when steamers adapted to the trade are constructed we shall find that the chief parf of the passenger, freight, and emigration service will go by this route. When that day comes the mails, will probably be paid for on the basis of the New York system—that is, at a fixed price per pound for letters, and at another for newspapers, books, and patterns.