PANAMA ROUTE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 36, 26 December 1861, Page 5

PANAMA ROUTE.

To the Editor of The Otago Daily Times. Sir, —At the sacrifice of a fixed resolution not to trouble my head with public affairs, I am constrained to express my gratification at your strenuous advocacy of the Panama line. Many of your readers are aware that, as the then head of the Government, I earnestly submitted the question to the Provincial Council twelve months ago, with a view of procuring its co-operation towards the establishment of the Panama line, and making this province its head-quarters. If, as I believe, the province was ripe for such an undertaking then, it is evident that it must be much more so now. If the object could have been attained by us single-handed a year asro with little difficulty, it is clear that it could be eif'ected with ease now. It is not for the purpose of self-glorification because a scheme —for propounding which a year ago I was regarded as being a fit subject for a lunatic asylum— is now deemed both practical and necessary, that I venture to address you, but with a view towards some practical steps" being at once taken in the matter. My only apology for calling attention to the subject is that the question has been a kind of day dream with me for the last three years, and that I regard it as the one upon which above every other depends the material progress and future greatness of this province. I think you are mistaken in assuming that the line cannot be started without the aid of New South Wales or the neighbouring colonies. I fear that if we wait for this, it may be some time before the line is in operation, and that, when it is so, Otago will occupy a very subordinate position with respect thereto. My opinion is that, in order to start the line, it is neither necessary nor expedient to seek the aid of the neighbouring'colonies, and that when once it is started, their co-operation must follow as a matter of necessity. Depend upon it, if you would secure to Otago the advantage of being the culminating : point of steam in the Pacific —if you would make Dunedin the commercial capital of the Southern hemisphere— the plan is quietly and expeditiously to establish direct steam communication with Panama by means of vessels owned in, and hailing from this province. The Government could effect the whole thing by a single stroke of its pen; it could acquire the necessary funds without borrowing or ever asking the sanction of the General Government. I have my eye at this moment upon a single sheep run on the Northern sea board which, if declared into a hundred and put into the market, would suffice to establish the line within nine months from this date. Should it be deemed as being beyond the sphere of the Government to cany on such an enterprise, this difficulty might easily be overcome. I would suggest some such plan as this :—Let a Joint Stock Company he formed in the province upon as extensive a basis as possible, to be incorporated either under a special act of the Legislature, or under the existing Limited Liability Act. Assuming that the undertaking could be fairly set afloat for say £80,000, let the shareholders find £20,000, or one-fourth; the remaining three-fourths, or £60,000 to be borrowed from the Government for a term of years free of interest ; the quid pro quo being* that the Otago mails should be carried free. Of course the Government should have a lien over the whole plant of the Company, and such controlling power over its administration as may be requisite for the protection of the public interest. Provision should also be made for setting aside the surplus earnings, after paying* .adequate interest on the paid-up capital, as a sinking fund to redeem the loan.

It appears to me that some such plan as the foregoing might be at once carried to a successful issue if the merchant princes of Dunedin would meet and] go into the matter in right earnest—the great deside-i fatum is action —immediate, prompt action ; the Provincial Parliament might be convened especially for such a purpose. The Panama line is every day becoming more and more an absolute necessity, and depend upon it, if we do not take time by the forelock, the line will sooner or later go past ouf door. As to the advantage which Otago would derive from establishing the line, I can scarcely trust myself to speak —suffice it to say that it involves direct steam with Sydney, with Melbourne, with Tasmania, not to speak of the sister Provinces of New Zealand. It involves the erection.of electric telegraphs, dock-yards, patent slips, engineering establishments, and all their concomitant requirements. It would lead to a large proportion of the passenger traffic between the European and American continents and the Australian colonies, as well as India and China, passing through jDunedin; in short, it involves an expenditure of three to five hundred thousand pounds annually in this Province, being so much money as it were dropped from the clouds. With such an amount added to. our vast mineral and pastoral resources, who can say that the City of Dunedin may not, in an incredibly short space of time, become the capital of the Great Britain of the South—rivalling, if not exceeding, the marvellous growth of that, to my mind, greatest of modern wonders —the City of Melbourne itself. No doubt these prognostications of the results of the Panama line being owned here, will be considered by many as Utopian; they are but a tithe, however, of the category which might be named. It is a scheme, the accomplishment of" which, if it does not enhance, will at least stabilitate the high value of property which has resulted from the gold discovery, and as such it appeals to the self-interest of every man who has a stake in the province. Ido hope that our leading men, and especially the mercantile community, will see to it that the grass does not grow under their feet until Dunedin is the central point of the world's great highway—within forty days' sail of England—until, in fact, the Panama line is an accomplished fact. All I would say to the most sceptical is, put the line, with all its probable advantages, in the one scale, and a sheep run in the other—see which will kick the beam, an.l act accordingly. I am, &c, James Ma.candrev.

To the Editor of the Otago Daily Times. Sir, —My attention haying been directed to an article that appeared in your.-Thursday's paper on the want felt and expressed by the inhabitants of this City, of some places of rational and legitimate relaxation. I may here state, that in conjunction with Mrs. W. H. Foley, it was my intention to meet the wishes of the public by opening some room for the purpose of giving a series of select Dramatic Entertainments, but found it utterly impossible to procure one adapted for that purpose, and was on the point of leaving for some other Province, when Mr. Jones, of the Provincial Hotel, generously proffered the use of the Masonic Room in his Hotel, wishing to do all in his power to promote the interests of the British Drama and other national and legitimate amusements, at the coming festive season, and for which I here beg most sincerely to thank him. . j By inserting this in your next issue, you willj greatly oblige, Your's respectfully, ■■■- Vernojt Webster. Dunedin, Dec. 21, 1861.