ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW POSTAL SERVICE.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 744, 1 December 1870, Page 2

ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW POSTAL SERVICE.

AMALGAMATION OF HOLLADAY'S AND WEBB'S LINES.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGJIAPH.)

(Concluded from the Westport Times,

November 2d.)

Line No. 4 is the same as the others in regard to the main boats running to Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton and Port Chalmers; but the contractors are to be at liberty to run branches from the Fiji Islands to Australia, and to make 'such arrangements as they please respecting subsidies from colonies other than New Zealand. The payment for this line to be thirty thousand pounds per annum.

Time in each of the four casea described —The contract time between San Francisco aud Auckland is to be 24 clays, and the contractors are to use all diligence to perform the distance between Auckland and Port Chalmers within 100 hours, subject to a penalty of £2 per hour for unnecessary delay. If the Government adopt Line No. 2, the contract time between San Francisco and Sydney is to be 30 days ; if the contract time be exceeded, the contractors are to pay a penalty of £2 per hour for such excess, unless a reasonable cause can be shown for it, and they are to receive a bonus of £2 for each hour less than contract time within which any service is performed between San Francisco and Auckland, or San Francisco and Sydney. The Postmaster-General is to have power to make and vary time-tables. The vessels may he detained 24 hours in New Zealand, and 24 hours in Sydney. They may also be detained 48 hours in San Francisco whenever it may be necessary so long to await the arrival there of the mails from Europe ; the contract vessels are to be exempt from all port, light, or wharfage dues or charges in New Zealand. On board each vessel first-cabin passages aro to he provided without charge for a mail agent and his assistant. The con-

tractors aro to enter into bonds to the performance of their contract. The contractors agree, subject to a penalty of £IOOO per annum, to procure from the United States an exemptioo from all the charges for mails between San Francisco and London and between New York and San Francisco, which are now imposed under the convention between the United States and Great Britain. The contractors also agree to use their best endeavors te secure a concession, under which wool, the nrodu'ce of any colony contributing"to the mail subsidy, and the fibre of the phormium tenax produced in New Zealand, shall be admitted into the United States duty free. These are the principal features of the contract. Some details still have to be settled between the contractors and the Postmaster-General. Until it is known, what the United States Government may decide to do in respect to some of the open questions it may not be desirable that specific offers should be made to the Australian Colonies. The contract contains ample provision for securing payment of subsidies from other colonies. It may be observed that the Post Office Act, No. 2, passed last session, and the terms of the convention proposed to the United States (which Mr Nielson announced that the authorities of that country had agreed to), have been signally useful in smoothing over one of the most difficult features of the contract —that of dealing with now subsidising colonies. The Postmaster-General, in accordance with the resolution of the Assembly, made it a condition in every case that the main line steamers should com'e on to New Zealand, and call at Auckland, Wellington, Lyttclton and Port Chalmers. There was great difficulty in procuring the consent of the contractors' representative to the main line boats visiting so many New Zealand ports; and the arrangement in respect to time between Auckland and Port Chalmers, with penalty for delay, is the very best that the PostmasterGeneral could succeed in effecting. The representative of the contractors declined to make any arrangement to Napier, and whether the contract vessels will call at that port must depend upon future negotiations. Every one of the Hues will subsequently comply with the conditions laid down by the Assembly in the resolutions of last session ; but Line No. 4, in permitting the diversion of the Australian traffic at the Fiji's, will be least in accordance with the spirit of tho resolutions. Unfortunately, it may be taken for granted that if the Colony does not adopt Line No. 2, the contractors will adopt Line No. 4. They would by it, in all probability, obtain much larger subsidies from the Australian colonies than by the New Zealand route. In the case of the other line, if the vessels call at the Fijis, they are to dp so for coaling purposes only. The main steamer is to proceed to New Zealand, and no branches are to be run except from New Zealand ports. A subsidy of £6*0,000 may seem to be a large one, and especially so as compared with the amount indicated in the resolution of the Assembly. Care has, therefore, been taken to give the Assembly time to decide whether the Colony shall adopt line No. 2, or leave the contractors their choice between lines Nos 3 and 4, but as the point is certain to be immediately discussed the Post master-General takes the opportunity of remarking upon it without however committing himself to a conclusion as to which choice will be recommended to the Assembly. Line No. 3 is in effect not widely different from the service contemplated by the resolutions. It is true that the amount named in the resolution is forty thousand pounds, and that the Assembly understood that subsidies from other colonies would go in reduction of that sum, but it must be remembered that for the sixty thousand pounds thirteen complete services a year will be secured, and also a branch line to Sydney, while the line for which tho Assembly approved of paying .£40,000 would have been merely a line to New Zealand. The Australian Colonies would have had to arrange for branch services, and would have contributed to tho line only as far as New Zealand. Under Line No. 2 the Colony will be able to offer to lay down the mails in Sydney. If line No. 2 bo adopted the £60,000 a year will be reduced by the amount of all subsidies received from Australian Colonies, and if the concession, as regards the convention between tho United States and Great Britain, be secured (the contractors binding themselves in a penalty of £IOOO per year to obtain it), the postages in England and Australia would alone amount to a very handsome contribution from the Australian colonies for the carriage of their mails. In any case, the Australian colonies should unitedly pay no less than from £20,000 to £30,000 a year ; and supposing the concession above mentioned to be secured, New Zealand could save a very large sum per annum in regard to her own mails; for the Imperial Government would send over to the colonies the postages collected on the other side, but which are now detained to defray the charges payable by Great Britain to the United States under the convention. It must be added that tho adoption of Line No. 2 by placing the whole service in tho hands of New Zealand would secure that the traffic hotween Great* Britain and the United States on the one hand, and the Australian Colonies on the othor should permanently pass through New Zealand instead of pass-

iug by it, as would be the case were the contractors enabled to adopt Line No. 4, .and so to run branch lines from Fiji to Australia. Still further, if the Colony should adopt Line No. 3 not only will it include connection with Sydney from Auckland, but lines of steamers already existing there would practically be d'rect communication between Melbourne and the main line at Dunedin, Lyttelton, and Wellington. The Postmaster-General believes that the contract times are such that it would be impossible for the Australian colonies not to come iu and to contribute fairly iu reduction of the sixty thousand pounds' subsidy. The contractors have assisted in maturing arrangements by which the journey between San Francisco and New York and from New York to San Francisco will bo performed in five days instead of seven, and a steamer is always to be ready at New "5 ork to start w'ith the mails for England as soon as they arrive. The transit from San Francisco to London will then be effected in 15 days, while from Sydney to San Francisco the time will be 30 days. Thus the mail from London to Sydney or from .Sydney to London would be delivered iu 45 days, and mails to or from Melbourne would be received and delivered in 47 days. Those times, indeed, would probably be materially reduced, for the contractors state they would be able to save two days should it be worth their while to do so. Supposing New Zealand adopt Line No. 2, the Government would be able to choose, under the thirteen services condition, either Sydney or Melbourne, as the port at which to make the times correspond with those of the boats of the Peninsula and Oriental Companv, or the Government would be able to give either Sydney or Melbourne an absolute fornightly service to England. Whichever of these courses might be adopted it is impossible to avoid the conclusion, that there would be a mail service to which public opinion in the Australian Colonies would demand that contribution should be made, whilst it is also impossible not to conclude that as a passenger route the service would be unequalled. There are many other considerations to be taken into account in choosing between the services. Line No. 2, with contributions from the other colonies, and with the English postages which would beset free by the United States foregoing the transit charges, shall not cost much, if any, more than £20,000 ; whilst, under similar circumstances. Line No. 4 would cost about the same amount, with far less advantages. Line No. 3, with nearly equal advantages, would cost about the same, but with less risk of costing more though the other colonies did not contribute But the contractors have the option, if Hue No. 2 be not adopted, oi choosing between Line No. 3 and No. 4, so that No. 3 cannot be counted on. It will be for the Assembly to decide whether Line No. 2 involves too much risk as to make it desirable to be prepared for the substitution of Line No. 4, which, after all, would be a very good service. It or any of the other lines would give New Zealand a service which would cost much less than the Panama service or than the Suez (with iuterprovincialandintercolonial distributing boats has cost) whilst, as compared with olherservices,it would confer immeasurably greater advantages directlv and indirectly. The contractors propose to charyo eightyfive pounds for the through passage to England including railway fare across the American continent, and to leave to each passenger the option of proceeding direct or of delaying at different places as lon<* as may be desired. The Postmaster-General is informed—altaough it is not a condition of the. contract—that a uniform rate to Engis to be charged from all the ports of New Zealand. Should effect be given to the provision for the admission, duty free, into the United States, of New Zealand flax and wool, the produce of New Zealand or of any colony contributing towards the service, another inducement to the Australian colonies to contribute will be supplied. It can scarcely be doubted that the establishment of the line will tend to the development of the New Zealand coaldfields, in which case it would be no exaggeration to regard the subsidy as being more than recouped to the colony by the monev payments for its coal, and by the employment of labor and capital which would be afforded. The time table, fixed for the commencement of the service is as follows: To leave Port Chalmers, Sydney (if required) and Loudon on the Ist of each month, Auckland on the 7th, and San Francisco on the 16th. This will enable letters despatched from London on the Ist of the month to be delivered in Port Chalmers on the 15th, and in Sydney on the 16th of the following month. There will be about a fortnight for answering, and replies leaving Port Chalmors or Sydney on the Ist will reach London on the 15th of the following month, thus giving a "course of post" of about one hundred and five clays, or three months and a half. The same will apply to answers to letters sent from Port Chalmers or Sydney ; in the case of Wellington or Auckland the time here stated would be reduced by several days.. In conclusion, the Postmaster General would obsorvo that the contract appears to bo one of an eminently satisfactory nature. It will stand the test of mceliug the requirements of the whole Colony, as a first-class mail, passenger, and commercial service, and, if tested, ns regards the, effect upon the much discussed separate

interests of the different parts of the Colony, the conclusion must be that no Berviee more likely, to do justice to those interests could be obtained, even if oue could be devised. The following discription of the vessels to be employed is taken from the American Lloyd's, for 1870:—-"Nebraska"—The steamship Nebraska, 2143 tons register, built in 1865, under official super- ■ .vision, specially surveyed,-and classed as extra A I in 1860; built of 'oak and hackmatack on iron frame,_three decks and beams', 15 feet draught, half brig rig ; demerisions : 170 feet length, breadth 39 feet, depth 26 feet; beam engines, 81 inch cylinder, strokes of piston 12 feet; double planked with 4 inch oak ; made 15-J- knots on her trial trip. " Nevada " —The steamship Nevada was built at the same time as the Nebraska; her tonnage is the | same, and she is in every respect a similar vessel except that her cylinder is 4 inches larger. "Dacotah."—The steamship Dacotah, 2153 tons register, was built in 1865, and specially surveyed, and classed, in 1869, as extra Al. She is similar in every respect to the Nebraska. At present she is employed in the trade between New York and the West Indies. " Moses Taylor."—The Moses Taylor is 1354 tons register ; was huilt in 1857, and was re-surveyed and classed as extra A 1 in 1869. Julius Vogel. Auckland, Nov. 23rd, 1870.-