STEAM POSTAL SERVICE

Press, Volume II, Issue 44, 15 March 1862, Page 1

STEAM POSTAL SERVICE

THR Postmaster-General has now had several opportunities of explaining the views of the Government, as to the best way of re-arranging the Intcrilonial and Inrer-provincial steam communication of the colony ; but though we have no difficulty in o-atherin" what arc to he the general features of the proposed plan, we arc still left too much in tho dark with regard to several important details to be able fully to judge how it is likely to work in practice. We have for instance, no information as to tho funds available, nor as to the mode in which they are to be distributed. On examining the Estimates passed by the General Assembly, we find that there is a sum of ■£13,000 appropriated out of the colonial revenue to the conveyance of mails by sea. To this is to be added the £14,000 contributed by tho Imperial Government in accordance with the arrangement effected by Mr. Sewcll; making altogether an aggregate of £27,000 available for the Steam Postal Service. Of this sum it was understood that £3,000 was to be available for the communication between Auckland and Sydney, to be supplemented, if nccossarv, from the Provincial funds of that Province. The remainder, or £24,000, was to be devoted to the o-eneral welfare of the rest of the colony. Instead, however, of adhering to this bargain, whereby it was stipulated that only a small proportion should be devoted to the special benefit of Auckland, it now appears that Auckland is to enjoy th£l*&clu_fvcben_§t of the ouly line to Australia, maintained at the cost of the colony. Certainly this is entirely opposed to the intention of the legislature which voted the money. But without dwelling upon this point, we cannot exactly make out, why it is, that a more efficient service than that proposed, cannot be established with the remainder of the funds at the disposal of the Government. We may assume that the direct service between Sydney and Auckland will not cost more than it did three years ago 3 and therefore that £6,000 will be sufficient. We have then a sum of -£21,000 to deal with, and Mr. Ward tells us that all he can do with this, is to establish a fortnightly communication between the Provinces; that is to say, that for a monthly service to be performed by two boats, a subsidy of £10,500 will be required for each. This bi-monthly instead of monthly service is absolutely the only compensation we arc to receive for the loss of the direct steamer from Sydney : the service between Melbourne and Dunedin, which is made'so much of as a set off, being paid by the Otago Government alone. We do not, as we have said, profess to understand the plan in all its bearings, and indeed, the ambiguity of Mr. Ward's language, as reported in tho papers would lead one to think that lie had not completely matured his plan even in his own mind. It is difficult to understand, for instance, how his different statements as to the frequency of Inter-provincial communication are to be reconciled. At Wellington he tells the Chamber of Commerce that he will he able to provide a service three times a month; at Dunediu, on the other hand, he propounds a scheme which admits only of a fortnightly communication. But whatever may be the solution of these little difficulties, the treat fact which affects u« in common with the southern provinces is the announcement that we are to be deprived of the direct line from Sydney, in order to allow Auckland to receive Jt* mails three or four days sooner. As regards Canterbury, Mr. Ward seems to say tbat this will not

create any inconvenience, inasmuch as his scheme will release funds sufficient to pay for the maintenance of the Sydney Hue. The argument seems to be this: Canterbury is now contributing its share towards the maintenance of the line between Dunediu and Melbourne, the bi-monthly Inter-provincial servi c wili make this unnecessary, and therefore the sum now paid for the Melbourne line will become available for the maintenance of t/ie present line from Sydney. He forgets to add that we do not know how far the other provinces concerned—Nelson and Wellington—will ho willing to concur with Canterbury in maintaining the line, and yet we can hardly believe that tho contribution now paid for the Melbourne line will alone he sufficient to maintain the Sydney line. We aro however, to understand that the whole alteration is, as far as Canterbury is concerned, merely a shifting of burdens from one service to tho other. What authority Mr. Ward has for asserting this, or what prospect there is of our being able to keep up our direct communication with Sydney for the same sum as we arc now paying for the Melbourne line, we are not informed • and yet it is the point upon which the whole question hinges. From the manner in which the idea was thrown out, it seems to be nothing but. a random conjecture, a kind of make weight like bis mention of the Panama line at Wellington, which had nothing whatever to do with the subject under discussion, but vhich seemed calculated to dazzle his hearers and to produce a general impression that a kind of plethora of steamers moving about'" in aU directions would be the result of his plan. He has met with but indifferent success in other provinces, but, contrary to the proverbial experience of mankind, he has been recognised as a prophet in his own country aud in his own Times. The Lyttelton Chamber of Commerce, and the mercantile public of Canterbury appear to have accepted as an ascertained fact, what in truth is nothing more than a more or less probable hypothesis; and this, when it would have been easy to test the value of tho hopes held out to them. At Dunedin, Mr. Ward was strongly of opinion that the General Government would enter more advantageously than the Representative of a smaller portion of the colony into negotiations for the establishment of a steam service, because a large contract is more economical than a smaller one. " The more the steamers had to do, the larger the scope of the contract, the more tempting it would he to undertake the whole at a somewhat reduced price." These are his views in the case of the Melbourne— Dunediu line, and we do not understand why the same arguments should not apply to the Sydney— Nelson line. Snrely the Lyttelton Chamber of Commerce would have shown more wisdom, more prudence, more shrewdness, if, before giving their approval to the abandonment of the existing line, some pledge had been given, that the prospects held out would be realized. That, on receiving a guarantee from the provinces concerned for the payment of a certain fixed contribution, tho General Government itself would go into the market and iuvite tenders, and make the realization of their anticipations a sine qua non of the general contract. It is certainly not easy to say why, if this course was the best in tho one case, it should not also be the best in the other. The truth is, we fear, that in the one case the Government is iv earnest, and means what it says; but in the other, indifferent, and neither knows nor cares how far the hopes which it holds out are likely to be fullfilled. So far as Canterbury ia concerned, it appears to us that we shall have made up our book, or at least our book will have beeu made up for us, in such a

way as to make it impossible for us to win, but if we lose to place us in a very much worse position than at present; the utmost, in short, that we can hope for is, that we may not be worse off than we are at present. We do not lay any stress on the MelbourneDunedin line, ns that is to be established entirely independently of the General Government; but even , were this a part of the general scheme, it appears to us that the times of arrival and departure are so nicely calculated, and leave so small a margin for those contingencies and accidents which are constantly occurring, as to make it hardly safe to rely exclusively on this line. Upon tho whole wo should have preferred to seethe Government abstaining from auy active interference with tho service sanctioned by tho Assembly, and confining itself to collecting information aud I maturing some general comprehensive scheme for the acceptance of the legislature, instead of upsetting all the arrangemeuts deliboratoly arrived at after mature consideration. Such a course would both be more seemly and respectful to the legislature, and would afford a means of organising a much more complete service than, us it appears, Mr. Ward is in a position to establish. Tho legislature would doubtless vote the necessary funds, aud would thus remove the only obstacle which, as Mr.Ward appears to thiuk, prevents him from making his plan perfect.