PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1880. NEW CANAL ROUTE.

Patea Mail, 16 December 1880, Page 2

PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1880. NEW CANAL ROUTE.

The public have subscribed the whole capital required for the Panama Canal. This fact has enormous significance for New Zealand, not in the present, but eight or ton years lienee. As the Suez Canal revolutionised the shipping trade with India, China, Japan, and shall we not say Australia in a less degree, so will this now direct sea route through the neck of America change the current of trade between Europe and the scattered islands of the (South Sea. Chief among these, and their commercial depot, is or will be New Zealand. We shall bo brought into direct shipping connection with New York and the Eastern States ; and this colony -will bo right in the track of the new sou route between Australia and Britain. It may be taken as a certainty that a steam service on the largest scale will be formed to connect Australia, New Zealand, New York, and London ; the through service calling at New York and New Zealand, and terminating at Melbourne. It is highly probable that Wellington will be the port of call for this service, because of the convenient entrance to its deep safe harbor, and of its central position. When this West Coast has a through railway to Wellington, and when those new ocean steamers run fortnightly through this Strait, the attractions of this district will bring us a stream of tourists and investors ; while the growth of Wellington as a commercial centre will give «s a splendid market.