STEAM COMMUNICATION BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND EUROPE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 1010, 10 December 1881, Page 3

STEAM COMMUNICATION BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND EUROPE.

[From the Melbourne Age\. The growing superiority of steamers over sailing vessels is becoming so manifest that they seem likely soon to monopolise the traffic between England and these Colonies. The following list of steamers coming to Melbourne speaks for itself, and shows the magnitude already attained by this branch of the service. First to be mentioned, as being the oldest, are those of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. For a long time they supplied us with a monthly mail service, but only with second-class boats. Since taking the new contract the company has been making fortnightly trips with better vessels. Now, of their own accord, seeing the growth of the rival steamship companies and the growing trade of the Colonies, they have not only been putting on their best steamers, but are going to run them almost weekly. They will run the following vessels, viz.:—The Ravenna, 3,372 tons, and 3,500 effective horsepower, leaves Southampton on the 24th of August; the Assam, 3,033 tons, 2,500 horsepower leaves on the 31st of August, but does not come further than Galle, where her mails will be transferred to the regular steamer between Galle and here ; the Indus, 3,462 tons, 2,700 horsepower, leaves 7th of September, and comes through ; the Nepaul, 3,536 tons, 3,000 horsepower, leaves 14th September, and lands mails at Galle ; the Rohilla, 3,500 tons, 3,500 horsepower, leaves 21st Sept., and comes through , the Deccan, 3,429 tons, 2,600 horsepower, leaves 28th Sept., and lands mails at Galle; the Rome, 5,100 tons, 5,000 horsepower, leaves sth of Oct., and comes through ; the Clyde, 4,100 tons, 4,000 horsepower, leaves 12th of Oct., and lands mails at Galle ; the Carthage, 5,100 tons, 5,000 horsepower, leaves 26th of Oct., and comes through ; the Australia, 2,666 tons, 3,300 horsepower, leaves 2nd November, and comes through ; the Kaisar-i-Hind, 4,023 tons, 3,800 horsepower, leaves 9th Nov., and lands mails at Galle ; the Shannon, 4,300 tons, 4,000 horsepower, leaves 23rd Nov., and comes through ; the Thames, 4,100 tons, 4000 horsepower, leaves 30th Nov., and comes through; the Khedive, 3,860 tons, 3,500 horsepower, leaves 4te Dec., aud lauds mails at Galle ; the Ganges, 4,100 tons, 4,000 horsepower, leaves 21st of December, and comes through. Those vessels coming will also go home via Galle without having to transfer passengers. In addition to the above there are two more vessels in course of construction, to come on here direct. They are 5000-

ton ships, and are to be called the Ballarat and Parramatta. The next line is the Orient Steam Navigation Company, whose vessels trading here, with the exception of the newly-built Austral, are already well known. They run fortnightly, and the Lusitania, which is the smallest of the fleet, is over 3,800 tons, and the largest, the Orient and Austral, are both over 5,800 tons. Next we come to what may be termed the carrying vessels, foremost amongst which are those of the Colonial line, and comprise the following : —The Sikh, 2,308 tons ; the Afghan, 2,114 tons; the Hankow, 3,504 tons ; the Moray, 2,185 tons ; the Devonshire, 2,317 tons ; and the Bengal, 2,193 tons. Then comes the Thames and Mersey Line, comprising the Gulf of Finland, 2,323 tons ; the Gulf of Carpentaria, 2,500 tons ; the Gulf of St Vincent, 2,500 tons ; and the Cascapedia, 3,000 tons. Then comes the Sloman Line—viz., the Amalfi, 3,500 tons ; the Sorento, 3,800 tons ; the Marsala, 3,800 tons; the Urmston Grange, 4,500 tons; the Catania, 3,500 tons; and the Delcomyn, 3,500 tons. Besides these there is Messrs. Wigram’s line—vix., the Norfolk, Durham, Northumberland, and Somersetshire, and these although temporarily taken off the voyage to Melbourne and placed in the New Zealand trade, are likely to be supplemented with five er six others of larger carrying capacity for the Melbourne trade. It is also stated that the German Lloyd’s, which sent out one of their ships, the Polluce, are making inquiries with the view of having a monthly line. There are also several outside steamers of large carrying capacity coming here, notably the Protos, Lennox, Clifton, Cairnsmuir, Nemesis, Africa, and Australia. Messrs George Thompson, jun., and Co., whose Aberdeen clipper ships comprise some of the finest sailing ships afloat, such as the Miltiades, Romanoy, Salamis, Pericles, and Samuel Plimsoll, see the greater advantage of steam, and have laid down two steamers, one of which should be almost finished. She is to be a twelve knot boat, and comfortably fitted for passengers, besides being a good carrier. The other is to be essentially a cargo vessel, and is built of steel. The cost of the former is stated to be about £90,000, and of the latter not much more than half that sum. The Cascapadea belongs to a firm different to any of the above, although advertised with the Thames and Mersey line. She will, however, form one of a new line when three other steamers belonging to the same owners, and now in course of construction, are finished. Their route will be from London or Liverpool to Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, thence to China, and back to London via New York. The Messageries Maritimer Company, subsidised by the French Government, will commence in February next running a monthly line via Mauritius to these colonies and New Caledonia, and as their vessels are all good carriers they will at all events obtain a share of the cargo as well as passenger traffic. Private advices by the last mail state that the ship-building yards of any magnitude are so occupied with orders for large steam vessels that those shipowners who left here a short time ago to have steamers built for the intercolonial trade are not likely to get their orders executed for some considerable time.

For continuation of news see A.-th page.