THE PANAMA MAIL SERVICE.

West Coast Times, Issue 322, 4 October 1866, Page 2

THE PANAMA MAIL SERVICE.

The following letter has been received by the Government from Mr Parkes, Colonial Secretary of New South Wale?, respecting the conditions on which the latter colony thinks it necessary to insist in carrying out its» agreement with New Zealand for the maintenance of the Panama Mail Service :—: — New South Wales, Colonial Secretary's Office, Sydney, September 1, 1866. Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the due receipt of your letters, No. 245, of 23rd July, and JNo. 259, of the 13th ultimo, on the subject of the Panama Steamship Service, and I now return for- the further consideration of your Government the draft articles of agreement transmitted by your previous communication of the 15th May, with such amendments as appear to be necessary to cany out the conditions of contract in my letter to you of the 15th June. For the more ready examination these alterations and additions are written in red ink on your draft. Should you concur in the amended agreement now submitted you will perhaps prepare an instrument embodying the terras of contract between the two | colonies as assented to, and it \%iil be executed without further delay on the part of New South Wales. 2. I much regiot that $'ou should have taken- a view of this undertaking,' and of the interests of the two colonies engaged in it, so' materially differing from the views of this Government. In my letter of the 15th of June I definitely informed you of the conditions which "would be* insisted upon in any contract entered into by New South Wales for carrying but the Panama Service, and as these conditions were based on the position of equal pecuniary responsibility which this colony was called upon to occupy in conjunction with New Zealand, it was not supposed that they would be objected to, unless it could be shown that they prejudicially affected • your interests. You, however, have considered ' it your duty to take a course which evinces a disregard oi our interests quite irreconcilable with the admission on your part 1 of our equal authority in coptrolling the service. With the hope that this coutse will not be persisted in, I now invite your attention to the considerations that have influenced the Government of New South Wales in arriving at its decision. 3. The Colony of Victoria is the Australian colony most largely, interested in the successful opening of the route to America and Europe via the Isthmus of Panama. The position assumed by that colony from first to last has been, if not one of discouragement and hostility to ths undertaking, at least one in which Jshe jhas steadily refuwd to contribute towards the edrt

of it. In the early pajrt of last year, when Dr. Featherston, the representative agent of the New Zealand Government, submitted to the Government of Victoria the whole question as stated in his minute of the 10th March, 1865, with a view to the neighboring colony participating in the establishment of the proposed service, Mr M'Culloch replied at some length in support of his refusal. So fay back as the 28th of February last this Government again opened the question to the Victorian

Gpvernraent, urging several reasons Why the Colony of Victoria should join With New South Wales in contributing towards the payment of the subsidy agreed upon by New Zealand. On June 22 last a second letter \v.is addressed to the Government of Victoria, in which the interest of that colony in the opening of the Panama route was lirged as a reason for the reconsideration of the subject ; and in the event of no contribution being made it was distinctly stated that all mails must be forwarded by way of Sydney. Though we expressly desired to be informed of any decision in the matter, no reply to either of these letters has been received up to the present date from the Government of Victoria. Copies of both these communications are enclosed for your information. 4. I also enclose copies of correspondence between this Government and that of Queensland, by which it will be seen that the latter colony, though sufficiently courteous to reply to our communications, at the same time positively declines to bear part of the burden. 5. Under these circumstances it appears unreasonable on the part of your Government to entertain any desire of placing the other Australian colonies on the same footing as New South Wales, or the expectation that we could possibly concur in any such arrangement. These colonies would be practically placed ih a position of equal advantage, as pointed out in my letter of 15th of June, if mails were received by steamers leaving their respective ports at dates calculated to meet the mail steamers at Wellington. 6. In your letter of the 23rd of July you ask to be .informed of Our particular reasons for insisting iip'oii the mails from the non-con-tributing colonies being forwarded "by way of Sydney. The reasons for this course, as stated above and explained more fully in my letter of the 15th of June, are sufficiently obvious. We do not see why New. South Wales should, pay for.. the accommodation of these colonies^ This Government, how-ever,-will be prepared to concur in any equitable arrangement for admitting them to full participation in the benefits of the service whenever any of them may consider it desirable to open negotiations with that object. 7. Referring more especially to your letter No. 259, of the 13th ultimo, I am bountt to dissent from your opinion thatf any danger can arise to the adjustment of questions of general interest between the colonies in this hemisphere by New Zealand and New South Wales insisting upon directing, for their own advantage, a costly service which they are left exclusively to support from their public^revenues. It is open to the other colonies at any 'time to become parties to this service, but* it does not appear to be probable that theywould take much, trouble to this end if they were allowed to enjoy all the substantial conveniences without incurring any of the-responsibilities attached to it. 8. This Government does not entertain much hope of any practical good arising from a Postal Conference in Wellington such as you suggest, nor is it likely that those Australian colonies that have declined te take any part in establishing the Panama service will consider themselves to be sufficiently interested in the matter to appoint delegates. The adjustment of" the postage rates, all arrangements for facilitating transit across the Isthmus of Panama, and the modification of the time table, so as to bring the performance of the journey from Southampton to Sydney within the time occupied by the journey via Suez must, I apprehend, be effected by the Governments of New Zealand and this colony in communication with the contracting company and the Imperial Government. 9. I am informed by telegrams in the public journals that mails have been again despatched from Melbourne by branch steamers in order to their transhipment on board the JRakaia at Wellington. I do not suppose that these mails, or any other mails, coining from ports in Australia or Tasmania other thau the port, of Sydney, will be forwarded, in view of the decision of this Government as now communicated. But should you feel yourself constrained disregard the terms which • are considered essential to any contract to bo entered into by New South Wales in carrying out the understanding arrived at^with Dr. Featherston, and again forward mails, transhipped at Wellington from any of the non-contributing colonies, that act will be held by this Government as a release from its engagements in respect to v the Panama * Service on payment of its proportion of the subsidy up to the present date. 10. In submitting for your early consideration the views of this Govern • ment on the whole question as between the contributing colonies, and those colonies that refuse to contribute, I am desired by His Excellency Sir John Young to express the anxiety of this Government to continue in association with New Zealand in carrying out this important service. ' \ I have, &c, Heney Pabkes, The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, New Zealand.

With reference to the publication of the new tariff, which appearod in our issue of Saturday last, we may state that instructions do not appear to have been forwarded to the Collector here to furnish a copy of the tariff to the Press. The list of new duties we published, were obtained at a late hour, by our reporter, who copied them at the Custom House. The " Lyttelton Times" of Saturday has the following : — " We have been favored by the Deputy Collector of Customs with the following important telegram : — The House of Representatives has authorised by resolution the following schedule of new Customs duties to take effect on and from this date. The Hon. the Commissioner of Customs therefore directs you to chai'ge these rates on all entries passed after receipt of this t •Icsram." The Wellington telegram, iv the t>iuuo journal' from its own correspondent, says " An official message, -with the items, will be handed to you." It is probably oil account of the insignificant contributions of the port of Hokitika to" the Customs revenues of tne colony, that instructions to furnish the local press with "an official copy" of the new tariff -were not transmitted to the Collector of Customs here.

The " Argus" of the 12th instant sayß :— "Mr G. T. A. Lavater, of the Government Railway department, states that he has discovered a new method of breech-loading applicable to heavy guns and field-pieces. He states that by his system loading will be a much more 'rapid operation than it now is under any existing plan, while the machinery employed will be so concentrated in its character that one man will be able to work the breech of a 200-pounder gun. Mr Levater further states that he has also hit upon a mode of constructing cannon shot, by which the rotary motion, which is now produced only by the use of the rifled or the Lancaster barrel, will be obtained when ordinary smooth bore guns are employed, "We understand that under the direction of the military department, models of both inventions are being prepared, with a view of displaying them at the Intercolonial Exhibition. Should these inventions realise the expectations of their author, they might soon be turned to practical account ; for we believe that everything in connection with them could be •ucccsrfully manufactured at the Government workshops at Williams town."

The " Southern Cross" of the 17th, says :— "An old Auckland settler, named Roborfc Potts, committed suicide at his house at Eemuera last evening. Potts, who was about sixty years of age, was formorly a farmer at Matakana, but for the last three or four years he has been living at Eemuera, on Jive acres of land, which he cultivated as a market garden. Mrs Potts is at present at Blaugere, on a visit to her son. Two of the family were living at homo, a daughter of about twentyone years, and a son of twenty-three. Yesterday morning the daughter went to Haugere to see her mother, and she states that when she left her father was apparently in his usual heaHh and spirits. The son states that he last saw his father at twelve o'clock, and asked him if he would have anything to Qat, when he answoredm the negative. .Shortly after, Potts went into the back-room where he slept, and which was in a " skilling," unceiled. The daughter returned home at halfpast seven o'clock, and immediately went into the back room, where she saw her father hanging to one of the rafters. She immediately ran to the Newmarket Hotel, and Mr Cunningham and Captain Williams accompanied her to the house, and found the body hanging, with .the toes just touching the ground. It was immediately cut down, but it was at once evident that life had been extinct for several hours. Mr Cunningham at once sent in a messenger to Mr Naughton, who rode put, and after inquiry into the circumstances, made arrangements for an inquest to be held to-day. There is nothing known, we believe, "which could be supposed to have influenced the mind of the unfortunate man."

The following paragraph, which we cull from an English paper, shows the astonishing progress making in the improvement of ffreanns :—": — " Mr G-ale, F.C.S., the discoverer of the process by which gunpowder can be rendered non-explosive and explosive at pleasure, has just invented a very ingenious piece of mechanism which, on being applied to small- * arms, will enable him to discharge them with far greater rapity than has been possible hitherto. It consists of a longifcudiual piece of steel perforated for bullets and fitting into a pistol between the stock and the barrel at right angles to the -weapon. A revolving screw worked by the trigger moves this bar on, and at each movement one of the holes in the bar is brought, opposite the barrel of the pistol, - and a shot is fired. The bar at last passes out at the other side with all its Bhot expended, and can then be loaded again, and used as before. Supposing each bar to contain ten shot, and a soldier to bo provided ■with half a dozen Buch, he could load and discharge at the rate of sixty rouuds a minute, if necessary, thus far outstripping the famous needle gun. The same mechanistiupan be'applied to rifles and even to artillery, and a proportionate increase of rapidity of discharge is obtained. Last week Mr Gale had the honor of exhibiting his invention at the Horse Guards before His Boyal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, Commander-in-Chief. The Coramander-in-Chicf expressed himself as highly delighted with Mr Gale's invention, and his Eoyal Highness declared it to be " the most ingenious and clever invention he had even seen," an opinion which was shared in I by the othrr officers. The distinguished party complimented Mr Gale in flattering terms upon having contributed a second valuable discovery to the art of wur. The Commander-in-Chief further requested Mr Gale to bring the invention before the Ordnance Select Committee."