FROM PANAMA TO NEW YORK.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2092, 4 September 1867, Page 7 (Supplement)

FROM PANAMA TO NEW YORK.

[FRO3I A CORKKSPONDKNT.] New York,. 29th June, 1807. To persons ia Australia and New Zealand intending to take this city en route for England via Panama, I tender the emphatic, if not original advice," Don't!" To those whose destination is the States, or who for business or any other reasons, must come here, I have nothing to say, but to tell them how they may achieve their object with the least amount of danger and annoyauee. The main fact which renders this otherwise pleasant route objectionable is the necessary detention at Panama. The New Zealand boats arrive there on the 4th or sth. A boat for New York has sailed from Aspinwall on the 2nd, or perhaps the 3rd. The next boat will not sail till the 12th or 13th, and in our case it was as late as the morning of the 15th. As the Mataura arrived on the evening of the 4th, her passengers for New York were stopped in Panama for ten whole days; and the average stoppage will always be eight days. Hence it follows—First, that the New York route is far longer than that by the West Indies, whereas it ought to be at least as rapid. Secondly, the hotel expenses make the journey dearer, whereas it ought to be at least as cheap as that by the main line. Thirdly,the whole pleasure of travelling is destroyed by the miserable waste of time at a place of so little interest as Panama; and this consideration leads ine to the final and most important one •-that of health. Panama is probably not more unhealthy than any other verdant spot in the tropics, and AngloSaxons live therein the full enjoyment of their health, and shew no signs of climate. Hundreds of thousands of passengers from the temperate zones pass through without harm, and there seems to be really no occasion for dread of yellow fever, except at those rare times—rarer than elsewhere, when it actually visits the spot. Sensible persons who find these facts out take care of themselves at nightfall, and incur no .danger. But there is a "Panama fever," which any one may catch, and from which there is no absolute immunity even for the residents. But it is to the feeble and low-spirited, who p become naturally more so by the delay, that serious danger arises. To them every sensation predicts fever, aud every fever is yellow. They live in dread, and lay themselves out for death. Fever has a fondness for such victims; and I regret to say that one of the Mataura's passengers, Mr Lord of Melbourne, fell a victim obviously in this manner. Several others of the party suffered from more or less trifling indispositiuu, as is natural when men are transferred suddenly from cold to heat. In fact the rule holds good here which is equally applicable to all such routes—- " Get through the tropics as fast as you can." The above are the objections to the New York route, at present. It is obvious that they all would be done away with if the steamers were made to correspond in time. But the New Zealand boats are bound to the dates of the Eoyal Mail Company, and the Pacific mail boats have such numerous connections with other lines that they cannot alter their schedule without creating irretrievable confusion. The only hope lies in their establishing a weekly line to California, instead of three times a month as at present. The maximum detention on the Isthmus could not then exceed six days, and the average three days, while in many cases there would be hardly any delay at all in changing from ship to ship. The company have considered the question, and have been at one time on the point of carrying it out. Tbey now state that if the Californian trade should increase during the year, they will run a weekly line, and that conditiou seems likely to happen. I hope it may, for the connection of Australasia with the United States is important in many respects, to say nothing of the attraction to passengers both ways. The passage from Aspinwall to New York was made in 8£ days, but I am told it is often done in 7 days. The Americans make more of their steamers than we do. On the English principle, the boat we came in would have been crowded with 250 passengers fore and aft. She actually took 850 down to Aspinwall, and had 250 cabin passengers back again, with plenty of room left for more. This is not the place to discuss the question; but there does Beem some opening for improvement in the English plan, by borrowing a hint or two from the Yankees.

Those who must travel to or by New York should be advised to book through to the latter point. Not only is trouble saved, but there is a saving of expenses also. The Panama Bailroad allows only 100 lbs luggage to ordinary passengers, and charges 5 cents (2jd) for all excess. I; Through passengers are allowed nearly double that weight, by arrangement. On the Pacific mail steamers to New York the same rule holds good, but the charge is only 3 cents, per lb extra. Passengers will find that 100 lbs do not go far in luggage, and the surcharge is ofteu n heavy item. On board the boats to New York, almost every thing that is wanted can be had; but it has to be paid for. Ice is sold at about a pound, if a quantity is taken. Even a bath costs half a dollar. The general arrangements for passengers are very good, aud it would be hard to select a more thoroughly comfortable voyage than ours, if oue had the choice among all varieties. As to money, if the traveller for the States can get American gold at par before starting, lie will do well. English sovereigns are wasteful when used to pay hotel bills and sundries', as they pass only for five dollars of the country from hand to hand, and in the purchase of American gold they bear a discount of 4 to 5 per

cent. Good bills on London are not difficult of sale; and I know a case where the holder of Buch a bill at 30 days sold it for 2 per cent premium in country money, used the latter instead of his sovereigns tor all local expenditure, took the rest in a New York bill at 5 per cent premium as gold, turned as much as he wanted of that into States currency for temporary expenditure, and with the rest bought English gold, the price being in his favour. The whole result was a realisation of the exact nominal amount of the bill, togetherwiththesavingeffected by not parting with his sovereigns piece-meal. But a simple transaction of the kind effected in New York would involve a loss of l\ per cent at present prices. Of New York I cannot tell you much, for I have seen but little. The guide-books say that if the traveller climbs the highest church steeple in the town he can get a good view of the city and its sister. But I have»iven up steeple-climbing, and must be content with that extent of sight which " cannot see the town for the houses." The business part of New York has the fault of Loudon. Its streets are crooked and narrow, and cannot accommodate the traffic which seeks to pour through them. They are villainously paved, and by consequence very dirty. Broadway is a misnomer, but is flanked by enormous buildings. Bowery, famous for butcher boys, is a much liner street in itself; but its houses are paltry, and its shops mean. The modern part of the city, comprising the avenues aud streets not named but numbered, is well laid out, and as handsome as there is any occasion for. The street railway cars are an institution of America, and the city swarms with them. 'I do not think they ease the traffic in the narrow streets, but rather incommode it; and I would not be astonished to find that Melbourne's fine, wide, open streets and its Albert cars, uncomfortable though they be, accommodate more traffic of all sorts, mile for mile, than the streets and cars of New York. And Melbourne has the advantage, too, in point of appearance.

American politics I will not venture on; but tliey seem to me, as to the Southern nigger during the war, "very much mixed." To judge by what people say of one another, it would appear that nobody ever does any public act but with the intention of influencing the next Presidential election. One stands aghast at the imputations freely hurled about by the newspapers. But among them all the libels on Congress are the most violeDt. I quote from a recent number of the Herald, a leading paper : " Our exposures of the rottenness and corruption of the national banks have had the double effect of arousing public indignation against the infamous system, and of alarming the monopolists conuected with it. This system has been weighed in the balance and found wanting--ibund to be full of corruption and oppression, and those interested in it see thoir doom, like Belshazzar of old, in the handwriting on the wall. In their alarm for the fate of their monopoly they are preparing to head off these exposures and the growing disgust of the people by a combined effort to buy up Congress. We have been iuformed that a circular, emanating from a New York national banking house, has been sent to the national banks throughout the country, assessing them one-sixteenth of one per cent, on their capital for this corruption fund to buy up members of Congress, with a view to defeat opposition and perpetuate their monopoly. This is just what we might expect. Such corrupt institutions can only exist, if they can exist at all, through corruption of the national legislature. The amount proposed to be raised for this purpose is probably only the nucleus of a larger corruption fund; for the banks can well afford to spend many millions in this way. We have little faith in the integrity or patriotism of many members of the present Congress, and have no doubt that they can be bought. What the price of some may be we cannot tell—ten thousand dollars or a hundred thousand—but whatever it may be the banks have ample means and no scruples about using them. Besides, a great many members are interested in the bauks as managers, stockholders, or directors of them, or in the ready accommodation they get from them to secure their favour and votes. Then that fourth estate of the republic, the Washington lobby, which the banks have been using for some time past, will be largely subsidized through the corruption fund." The same ideas have been repeated frequently by journals of all sides. I have known some acrid writing in the colonies, and some not very dignified legislation. But it never entered into any journalist's head in a British community that his readers would believe such imputations as the above. That they are freely made here means that they are largely believed ; and, if such be the case, farewell to the dignity and power of the political institutions of the couutry.