NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 70, 24 March 1887, Page 1

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Auckland mercantile community will: . have to be on the alert with regard to the attempt which is now being made to deprive this port of the benefit of direct steam communication with England. According to the Wellington press, the present dietribu- ! tion of the_ Doric's cargo from Wellington is made a view to the adoption, of that system permanently. Of course, the local newspapers declare the experiment to have been, an - unbounded success They, assert that "the cargo W reached, its-destination all over the ' colony in much less average.. time than could; otherwise have been obtained and a marked saving in cost to the ship has been * effected. The Tl aion Cj . bj^™* waiting at Welh UK ,on to take theUapier . and Auckland cargo Nori h, and the Dunedin and Lyttelion cargo South ; and of course there; was 1.0 difficulty id regard to the quick: despatch or the W fißt Coast cargo" Auckland and Southern merchants could tell a very different story of the dolavs ia delivery of cargo when tr a i,ship P ed-of packages containing paits of machinery delivered with a month's iuterval between-of the uncertainty that overhangs the question of delivery, rendering the advantages of despatch by direct steamer with ita attendant heavy charges very questionable indeed If the big steamship companies intend to depart from the promise that was wrun£ from:them, to pat on a Jair proportion c? their (Steamers tor each of the larce Dort* direc], they will fi na a growing deferS I ti»n amoßg merchants to u E e sailing vessels for the conveyance of their c«r eo In f a ct,the,e is no very obvious difference , between transhipping cargo at Wellinetou and transh.pmng f tom the Urien( . &™ i. and 0. lines at Sydney or Melbourne.

j It is a somewhat remarkable fact lhat tha re^perimenta which have b een m ; Ue of running Sunday traine in New Zealand for the i pwppM of-enabling people to *peod thl ' day a long way from the cities have not proved a success. Tie Sunday train ?£ Henderson- is far from payable, riotwith : standing that the eemeteW a^VaS,* ' ~a f for|B a special class ortfaflfc WWelw j tona Sln?l l ar experimentha, receivedalongfp , trial with similarly unsatisfact6ry reßuftß Sorae "onthlrago presaure W6e b^t £ ■ - bear oq the Government to run troin's twie»«- ■ Hutl, adMtenoe of-22 miles. The Minis. j Publlc. Works decided to g& euch! a tervice a trial, .and for some time a train has been rua'to TJpwr more determined than ever to sThfo f«» «ga^et run ß i D g S Md «y trato,: foilonV^ .; >0 , : ,.™-,ajii;. l • .. , •;,:.: ;