The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1885. THE BRITAIN OF THE SOUTH.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2114, 7 October 1885, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1885. THE BRITAIN OF THE SOUTH.

If THERE is one tiling more than another that untitles New Zealanders to chira for their country the appellation of " the Britain of the South," it must surely be the rapid extension of her commerce, and the large merchant fleet which carries her flag. It is not so many years ago since she owned no steamers except a few coasters. Then the New Zealand Steam Shipping Company was formed in Wellington, which in time gave way to the more powerful Union Company in Dunetlin; but still the trade was merely coastal. In time, however, Messrs McMeckan, Blackwood <fc Co.'s fleet of intercolonial steamers was acquired, and from that time her merchant fleet grew by leaps and bounds. All the old steamers were superseded by vessels of a newer type, and these have from time to time been added to, so that now there is not a finer and larger fleet in the southern hemisphere. New Zealand enterprise, however, extended in other directions, The New Zealand Shipping Company, first of all started j a line of sailing vessels between the ports of the colony and London, and to | these they have within the last two years added five of the best ocean steamers afloat. New Zealand has, therefore all her intercolonial shipping, and the greater portion of her maritime connection with the old country in her own hands, Yesterday we were enabled to announce that another very important extension had been effected by the Union Company, which, in conjunction with the Oceanic Company, has secured the ban Francisco Mail Service, The vessels of the local company will carry the mails from Sydney to Auckland, and tlence to Honolulu, and vice versa, from Honolulu to San Francisco they will be in the hands of the Oceanic Company. The Union Company will, therefore, have fully three-fourths of the work, and will carry on the traffic in New Zealand and Australian waters. ■ One more link of her trade has thus been secured to her, and when we look round wo cannot help being etifick by

the vast proportions which lier ship, ping has assumed. All the ordinary trade with the Australian colonies is carried on in her own vessels, and so is what remains of the coal trade. Through the enterprise of the Union Company, a portion of the trade between Fiji and other islands, and Sydney and Melbourne, is alsoin her hands. New Zealand hits her own line of steamers and sailing vessels for the English trade, and now she has added that of San Francisco. Thus, with the exception of the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company's line to and an annual tea steamer, the whole of her trade is carried in her own bottoms. There is not another British colony,nor a country, in the world, except Great Britain herself, that can boast of such a position, and we venture to predict that these ramifications of her trade will do as much, or more, to increase the prosperity of the inhabitants of New Zealand than many of the political public works .that have been undertaken ashore,