The Southland Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1868.

Southland Times, Issue 999, 7 August 1868, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1868.

In continuation of our remarks upon the report of the Postal Service of New Zealand, it is our purpose to make plain what the cost of the inter-colonial, and the inter-provincial mail service has been to the colony, and what effect the changes recommended would have upon the various provinces. Mr Hall speakes highly of the manner in which the Panama Mail Service has been hitherto carried out, and predicts that its future working will be even more satisfactory. We are free to concede that the P.N.Z. and A. Company has succeeded well in its efforts to open up a new and difficult line of ocean traffic between this colony and Great Britain. And when the Pacific Railway is completed, the Panama Mail Service will be the most expeditious and advantageous that New Zealand could possess, but at the present time it is not a sufficient service for the whole of the colony. In all new enterprises of so great a magnitude improvements can generally be made, and if the Suez mail is to be dispensed with, in justice to the South and the North pro-

vinces — Southland, Otago, Chriatchuecli, and Auckland— i sdme chauge from the existing arrangements should be made. There can be no question but that the inter - Colonial and inter - Provincial Services are too costly, notwithstanding that great reductions have been made during the last two years. Upon this subject the report says : — " In accordance with the desire expressed by the House of Representatives in its last session, the Mail Service between Sydney and Auckland, by which the Suez* Mails for the latter place were conveyed, has already been discontinued." The following figures will show the subsidies paid for the interColonial and inter-Provincial Mail Services during the last five years :— Inter-Colonial— lß63, £26,000; 1864, £36,000; 1865, £35,116 13s 4d; 1866, £21,675; 1867, £14,000; 1868, £6,000. T0ta1— £136,491 13s 4d. Inter-Provin-cial for the same period— lß63, £23,300 ; 1864, £27,328; 1865, £33,729; 1866, £29,669 13s 4d ; 1867, £14,000 ; 1868, £8,400. T0ta1— £136,426 13s 4d. This gives a grand total for the two services for the five years of £272,918 6s Bd, or an average of £54,583 13s 4d per year. This is undoubtedly a larger amount than the colony can, under existing circumstances, afford to pay ; still the sweeping changes recommended are open to objection. If the colony is to depend upon the Panama Mail only for communication with Great Britain, it is obvious that all but the central provinces — Wellington, Nelson, and Hawke's Bay — will be seriously inconvenienced. Thus the bulk of the population will have to suffer from an insufficient mail service, and a very small minority only will reap the benefit for years to come of a costly undertaking, the expense of which the majority must bear. This is neither equitable or just. It is plain that if the Suez line is to be discontinued, "Wellington should no longer remain the terminus of the Panama line. If there is anything that would reconcile the colonists of the South to the proposed abandonment of the Suez line, it would be the making the ports of arrival and departure of the Panama steamers, Auckland, and Otago, or the Bluff. "Without endorsing the opinions of the ' Southern Cross,' as to the failure of the Panama contract, we fully agree with our contemporary, that if it is to be a service to benefit the greatest number, great changes must be made. If it came to a simple question which mail service shall be retained, the Suez or the Panama, the verdict in this Province would be for the Suez. But it cannot be so put. The Panama contract has three years to run, while the Suez arrangement can be terminated immediately. The remarks upon this subject in the paper mentioned are not without significance as to the feeling of the Auckland people. It says : — * "We are all certain that the "Wellington terminus is a , blunder, so there can be no harm in trying hofv far a new arrangement might redeem the scheme from the disrepute in which it now justly lies. "We only say that we do not expect much from it. That it would be better to make a Northern and a Southern port the points of arrival and departure respectively, we Ido not doubt ; but that this would, or ought to, make us content as a colony with the Panama service and subsidy, we think out of the question. Our only hope lies in the speedy failure of the company.' The latter sentence in the report with reference to the Suez line is extremely indefinite. After commenting upon the cost of the inter-colonial and inter-pro-vincial mail service, that has to be kept up for the distribution of the correspondence by this line,itsays : — " It is proposed, therefore, to discontinue those services, and to receive and forward the Suez mail by unsubsidized vessels." "What does this mean ? Does it imply that the Grovernment contemplate to contract with the proprietors of a line of steamers trading between Melbourne and New Zealand, *to bring on the mails via Suez on similar terms to those on which the Panama mails have been forwarded to Victoria, or does it mean that all communications via Suez are to take their chance of being brought on at sometime or other by a casual vessel. If it is the intention of the Government to take the first indicated course, its working as an experiment may be quietly endured for a time, but if it is the latter which is contemplated, it cannot but prove unsatisfactory to a large majority of the colony.