The Evening Mail. SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1876.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 13, 6 May 1876, Page 2

The Evening Mail. SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1876.

\c is satisfactory to know that there are Lose outside this Colony watehitKf our | teresta, and ready to make suggestions |r onr benefit when occasion offers. It IKB be within the recollect ton of otir ttders that the Coliuta a short time since, Kien carrying the last inward mtil from £,D FrnwiN''"; was unable to enter £iaroa. Heads, owing to the shallowness I the water ©n the bar. Of course there isre not wanting those ready to'make ipital out of this misfortune, and rjixiotw i point ottt the disadvantage of Port ttalmers aa a harbour and teruiinns of |tr mail boats. It must have been {-parent to any right-thinking person that lose large steamers are not at all suited

f«tr «»wr mail coastal service. They are not adapted f*>r calling in at the small ports (town the coast, nor is it the chea|>est and most expeditious way of forwarding tlie mail from Auckland. While we havj two services like the Vnion and 2fe\v Zealand .Steam Ship Companies, there is no occasion to employ large boats, sueli a* the C*d»ma, City of San Francisco, and othrjr steamers of ti [daily heavy tonnage. Another diaad vantage, too, in subsidising l**»atsr of this stamp is that it coats the country £15,000 per annum, while the local companies would run the mail from the North at quite a third leas money, and with greater despatch. We are not singular in this opinion, for our contemporary the " Sydney Morning Herald " in alluding to the subject, and after commenting on the inability of the Colima to enter Port Chalmers, say* ;■ —" We cannot help regarding this fresh experience as an additional argument in favour of the course ;ve have long recommended, namely, that New Zealand should give tip instating on the ocean steamers doing its coastal sen-ice. There is no traffic to justify the employment in I that work of vessel-* of such tonnage. It I is setting » horse f« do a pony's work, and it is not only a waste of money, but it is ; risking the safety of very valuable ships, and perhaps many lives. The interprovincial service of New Zealand will, in a few years, be amply provided for by the railways under construction, but even now i all reasonable wants are met by the local | Steam Navigation Comjany, which ought i not to be subjected to the severe competition of a powerful subsidised company. We should have had precisely the same dittfculty in New South Wales, if, during ! the years that are past, we had insisted on the P. and I). Co. s boats calling at Twofold I Jay and Newcastle, and the Clarence. fn ordinary weather they could have got into all these harbours, but we have always been content that the mails should lie delivered at the capital, and be distributed up and down the coast by a local ; service." We certainty must agree in every i particular in the remarks of the '' Herald," ! for which we have steamers like the Taupo, Hawea,and Wellington, it docsseem ridicuh>ttstopay£l"),oooayear for a service which could be letter performed by these locallyowned steamfrts. Again, another thing : should be taken into consideration, these companies are the means of circulating a ! targe amount of capital in New Zealand, whereas the large boats carefully abstract alt the c;>in from i.tir exchequer, and distribute it in San Francisco and other places outside of the Colony. We believe in the old principal of " Live and let live," and white the*.; h>ealty-owned boats are on the const, and fully capable of carrying out ths coastal serviee, oiir opinio?! is that they should be supported, ami any sub:ti«ly we have to give should be otlercd ihem, when there v.oitht be some chance of t!iu money bsing re-distributed. Both companies have shown themselves quite equal t«» the service, and therefore some opportunity should be .-ifloided ihem of ' carrying the mails, instead of employing unsuitable boats, and paying money to \ strangers.