THE ROUTES BETWEEN ENGLAND AND AUSTRALIA.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 93, 25 September 1863, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE ROUTES BETWEEN ENGLAND AND AUSTRALIA.

Twelve years ago a select committee of the House of Commons sat to consider the question of steam navigation to Australia. The question lay principally between two routes — tiiat by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and that by way of the Isthmus of Panama. The Australian colonies, though not exactly our antipodes, are still placed so completely at the other side of the olobe that two mighty capes and two isthmuses connecting enormous Continents are candidates for the honor of affording a line of transit between them and this country. The remote and inhospitable Cape Horn, the homeward track of sailing vessels, had no advocates, but many things were urged in favor of the Isthmus of Panama. The route was nofc so shoit as that by the Cape of Good Hope, but it, had many advantages of its own. Ir included in the direct line of its course the northern island of New Zealand, t ii 3 destined seat of perpetual wars with the Maori tribes, and adjacent to promising goldfields. The voyage round the Cape is hoist«-rons and stormy, and for tlKee-fourths ofthe year the wind between Africa and Australia blows very strongly from the west. The western side of the Australian « ontinent is singularly barren and inhospitable, thinly settled, and without harbors. It is a lee shove, which is m ide after a run of 4000 miles without seeing land, and in case of shipwreck there would be a great probability that those who might reach the shore would perish by famine before they could find a settlement. The Panama route, on the other hand, passes through the safest and most agreeable navigation in the world. The sea is calm, the weather constantly fine, and the wind, which blows from the south-east, is a favourable breeze both for going and returning. At Tihiti, at Easter Island, and at many other islands are convenient places i'or coaling. The destination of the steamer is the ancient city of Panama, with one of the finest harbors in the world, connected by four hours of railway with a harbor whence steamers are despatched at frequent intervals to America and Europe. The voyage between Panama and Australia might not unfairly be con- j sidered as a pleasure through the most charnjinjr climate and the smoothest sea in the world. Nevertheless, the Peninsular and Oriental Company exercised a very powerful influence over the deliberations ofthe committee ofthe House of Commons. That influence was all against the Panama line, and the result was a decision in favor of tbe far less eligible route by way of the Cape of Good Hope. As it was foreseen, that line did not answer, and after several abortive attempts the service ultimately took its present form of a monthly mail by way of Ceylon and King George's Sound. Jt is only fair to | say that this is the shortest route to Australia, and that, after several years of great irregularity, the packets have lately kept their time with quite as much punctuality as can be anticipated in so long a distance and under so many obstacles. The expense of the service to this country, after deducting the postage of letters and certain other matters, is 70,000 a year; a sum by no means exorbitant when we consider the vast distance that has to be traversed, andthe immense benefit to England and her most flourishing dependencies which this postal service confers. But Australia is not content with a monthly mail. .''sU though the westerly colonies seem anxious to preserve the route by Suez and Ceylon, the easterly settlement.'*;. New South Wales, Queensland, and New Zealand, cast looks of longing regret over the vast expanse of placid sea, studded with beautiful islands, and made, as it would seem, on purpose to be lhc favorite

highway of nations,' which may morfe properly be said to unite them to, than to' separate them., from, ihe grrat American continent. Sydney has many claims to be the principal port ofthe South Pacific, and the commanding magnitude; fine harbors, and inexhaustible timber of New Zealand point it out as the dominant -power in Oceania. It is- not unnatural that these colonies should view with some impatience the acts of a Government by which the trade and influence of Eastern Austraiia are turned aside from their natural development, and destined . to fall like a modest tributary stream into the vast river of Indian commerce; The colonists do not seem very earnestly to urge the substitution of the Panama route for that by Suez. What they seem to wish is a fortnightly mail reaching the A ustralian colonies alternately by way of Suez and of Panama. This iscertainly asplendid oroposition — enough to fire .the in- agination,, of a less; plodding and phlegmatic race ihan our own. We are asked to put a girdle round the earth, and unite the two ends of it in one of our noblest colonies. For the mere purpose of postal communication, as a dry matter of business, and without a particl6 of enthusiasm or poetical sentiment, we are requested to perform every month the circuit of the habitable globe, by Knglisb steamers, with the exception of a hundred miles of railway over the Isthmuses of Dai'ien and Suez. Nor is the scheme of itself ruinously expensive. Tbe outlay for a fnrtni«liily line to Panama would be about L 180,030, and subject to very considerable reduction by the postage of letters, and probably to a still further reduction when the line has been tested, and its immense superiority as a route for passengers over the Red Sea and the dreary and often stormy voyage from Ceylon to King George's Sound had come to be duly appreciated. It is difficult to imagine a more agraeable trip than the voyage from England to the Isthmus of Darien, through the beautiful scenery ofthe West Indies, with a digression to Callao or Valparaiso, under the shadow of the magnificent chain of the Andes, a stretch across the Pacific Ocean, a glimpse at Australia, and a return by Ceylon and India to England. That such a thing will be feasible in l future we have no doubt, and it is not wonderful that ardent spirits should be found who are anxious to anticipate the period. But unhanpilv, reason, speaking very appropriately by the mouth ' of Mr Peel, suggests ground for pausing, before we realise, this delightful vision. I The route by way of Suez is about 3000 miles shorter than the route by Panama. 1 We can communicate with Melbourne in forty -five days by way of Suez, while it is estimated — rather too amply, we think — that fifty-five days would be required t^ communicate with Melbourne byway -f Panama. Another undoubted advantage in favor of the Suez route is that we can communicate from Suez, and shall shortly be able to communicate from Ceylon, by electric telegraph. Tlie tenders for the Panama route vary fiom L 160,000 to L ' 20,000 a year, while the Peninsular and Oriental Company have offered for L 50,009 a year to give a seoond service, so as to make our communication with Australia fortnightly instead of monthly. So we suppose Mr Pey and common sense must have their wav, and thp glorious enterprise t of bringing tbe great Pacific Ocean and its innumerable islands into immediate and rapid communication with Western Europe, must await a little longer that full accomplishment to which we do riot doubt that it is destined. We the more regret the postponement of tbe Panama roule when we find thai New South Wales and New Zealand are willing to contribute the large sum of LBO.OOO a year towards its expenses. This is not only a very substantial aid, but also a most convincing proof of the great importance which these intelligent and enterprising communities attach to this line of communication. Few indeed are the applications to the Treasury whicli are accompanied by such a proof of sincerity. We cannot help thinking that, where so much genuine j interest is felt, it might be possible to orij ginate a company to run packets between Sydney and Panama, furnisned with an auxiliary screw, so as to take advantage of the trade wind mentioned above, which', blowing from the south-east, furnishes fair wind both in going and returning. The subject is too important and interesting to be lost sight of. — Times.