South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1882.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2921, 5 August 1882, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1882.

The question of a direct steam service between this colony and Great Britain is just now attracting a good deal of attention, in view of the expiry of the San Francisco mail contract, which will occur early next year. There are a good many advocates of a new direct mail line, and but for one consideration the colony at large would gladly agree to it. That consideration, however, is its enormous expense. A fast going mail service, to do the journey home, say in or under forty days, would be a very expensive luxury, quite beyond our reach at present. To subsidise a line of ordinary steamboats would be useless for mail purposes, and we should be left altogether behind-hand. And it is more than doubtful whether such a line would pay. There seems to be nothing for it but to stick to the ’Frisco route. It appears not to have answered all the expectations that were formed with it in the development of trade with America; but though it is not doing this good work rapidly, it is doing it surely. It is much to be regretted that the American Government has not yet seen its way clear to join with our Government and that of New South Wales, in subsidising a line of ’Frisco steamers, for it leaves a very heavy burden to be borne by a very young country. But it is probable the United States Legislature will, by-and-bye, think better of their decision (if they have decided) and in the meantime there seems no alternative but to renew oar present arrangement. The colony could never snpport a first-rate Mail Service of its own, and anything else would be useless and unprofitable.

“ I’ll put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes.” The fanciful prediction has come very near fulfilment by electricity. This wonderful agent has, for ns, almost “ annihilated time and space.” We forget that we are at the antipodes of the Old Country, while we daily read of events that happened there but twenty-four hours ago. What an impetus the telegraph has given to commerce and material progress, is apparent to every observer. But its influence on thought, and the mental constitution, is not so generally apparent though most interesting to examine. The telegraph places us in an entirely different relation to passing events. Even in the recent days when the first intimation we, in the colonies, had of occurrences

at Home was by monthly mail, our chronicles were history. Now-a-days we are spectators of a play which is going on before oar eyes ; and when great events are in progress, we are kindled as we never were before. Thought and judgment are wonderfully quickened by swiftly following items of news. The effect upon our mental constitution is not merely stimulating, it has changed it. It tears us away from the past, concentrates us on the present, and intensifies our expectation of the future. The fading splendour of the departed is lost in the fast following wonders that are under our very, eyes, and the dim but rapidly brightening outlines of things yet to come. The perpetual straining after rapidity stimulates invention and men cease to look back and intently press forward. We owe this great advance to science. This accelerated communication is the most remarkable trophy of the warfare of science. It is this which has most elevated it to the high place it now occupies. It is not without regret that in this rapid forward movement we find humanity abandoning its traditions, its superstitions, its old resting places and delights; that we find imagination withering and a new faculty coming into being in its stead for we have not yet quite learned,though we are gradually discovering, how much the beauties of reality which science discloses, surpass those of fancy. This telegraphic communication, of itself, is a tremendous power. It brings the most distant people into direct and instantaneous communication with us, and, as by lightning, clears the way for the intercourse of nations. It’s influence may be seen in the quickened intelligence, the increased activity of the mass of mankind. These conditions are signs of the coming time, when traditional barriers, prejudices, caste, shall be broken through, and all mankind placed on more of an equal footing. We stand among the forces of nature, and as one by one they manifest themselves, the eye is strained in the continual look-out for new and more startling phenomena. In such stirring scenes, - the mind cannot sleep. It must be vigilant.