STEAM COMMUNICATION BETWEEN ENGLAND AND NEW ZEALAND.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1304, 3 April 1883, Page 4

STEAM COMMUNICATION BETWEEN ENGLAND AND NEW ZEALAND.

Is view of the fact that the Government of New Zealand have invited tenders for a regular monthly direct steazn service between London and that Colony, by way of the Cape on the outward voyage, and through the Magellan Straits, calling at St. Vincent on the nomeward voyage, flic following extract from a memorandum addressed by Messrs Clark, concessionaires of the Buenos Ayres and Pacific railway, now in course of con- ' straction, addressed to the President of ' Chili so far back as 1877, will (says the Melbourne “ Age") be read just now with more than ordinary interest. The Messrs Clark say I— The ordinary route from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso will be the shortest way for travellers between England and Australia. The length of journey by the various routes between Falmouth and Melbourne is as follows i— By Sues Canal ... ... ... 40 days By Cape Horn HO ~ By Cape of Good Hope «0 ~ By New York and San Francisco... 45 „ ! By way of Monte Video and Valpariso it would be much shorter, namely:— London to Lisbon .1 days Lisbon to Monte Video 19 „ Monte Video to Valparaiso ... 2 „ Valparaiso to Melbourne 18 „ Even supposing that there was no saving of time, the steamers from Australia homeward bound would find a saving in coal, which is procurable at many porta of the i Chilian coast from the well known mines of ! Lota and Coronel, thus enabling the steamers to go on with their own cargo through the ; Magellan Straits home to England. The products of Australia are similar to those of California, so that a trade between San Francisco and Melbourne would be devoid of I interchange. Australia exports wool and , copper to England, but her wool could never . afford to pay 3300 miles of railway carriage between San Francisco and New York, hence I it goes by the cheaper Cape Horn route. ; Steamers from Sydney to San Franciso have ■ consequently to fill their holds with coal for : so long a voyage, touching merely at Honolulu to pick up a few passengers, and depend- i ing entirely for traffic on passengers and I specie. Hence the line is so expensive I to work that the British Government has to supply a heavy subsidy for carrying the mans. The Government of Australia and New Zealand for a long time offered a premium of £60,000 per annum to any company which would carry the mails between Melbourne and Great Britain in less than 45 days. Subsequently they have raised the premium to £90,000. By way of Valparaiso and Monto Video by the mails can be sent from Melbourne to London in 42 days, the same as by way of San Francisco, but much cheaper, for the followings reasons i—L Because the westerly winds (trade winds) in the southern hemisphere help the steamers coming from Melbourne to Valparaiso. 2. Because cheap native coal may be had at various Chilian ports. 3. Because Australian steamers by way of the straits of Magellan can carry their own cargo to England. 4. Because the above advantages would allow 24 steamers each way per annnm, instead of 12, as by way of San Francisco. For New Zealand the route by Valparaiso would bo still more advantageous. The steamers from Australia would drop the passengers, mails, and specie at Valparaiso, to be sent overland in 48 hours to Mont Video, and would then take in coal, and proceed with their cargo by way of Magellan Struts r« itnlt for England, taking up at Montevideo 'the passengers who had left Australia by a steamer a fortnight later (supposing two mails monthly). The outward steamers from England with cargo and passengers would drop the latter at Monte Video, proceed with the cargo, and pick up at Valparaiso passengers of a subsequent fortnightly steamer from ■ England. In our estimate we suppose 19 1 days from Lisbon to Monte Video, but the voyage could easily be made in 17 days, the i usual time taken by the Pacific steamers ! Aconcagua and Corcovado, of the Pacific Company (even calling at Cape Verde and , Rio), and also by the French steamers Sene- i gal and Niger. Thus the distance from Mel- I bourne to London could be reduced to 40 days. These calculations are merely to show that at some future day the traffic by such a route will probably eome to swell the earnings of the Transandinc Railway. Nevertheless our estimates do not take any account , of such traffic in a future more or less remote.