NEW SOUTH WALES.

Press, Volume VIII, Issue 862, 12 August 1865, Page 3

NEW SOUTH WALES.

THE MAIL SERVICE. !Hie " Morning Herald" of July 20, says:— • By the last mail we have received from Batavia a copy of a prospectus for a line of mail, steamers from Batavia to Sydney, via Torres Straits. A concession has been applied for from ~fcS*© "projectors -ta*G ~nr?» II'; I • SB f IJ tuie of tiieiir sclieiae. — Tteir ideas are developed with an amplitude exceeding ike usual limits of an ordinary English prospectus. There are three documents—a statement of the project, a representation from the Chamber of Commerce backing it up, and a petition to the G-OYemor. From these documents we gather that the incitements to the project have been threefold —first, a natural desire to make Java a centre ;of commerce ; eeeondly, a desire to find in Australia a market for Jaja produce j and, thirdly, a desire to increase the maritimeimportance of Holland, in the eastern seas. All these are legitimate motives, and we have not. to disparage- any one. of them. If we can gain any advantage* from the enterprise of the Batavians, we are not too proud or exclusive to receive it. Our free-trade doctrines teach us to rejoice in the commercial prosperity of our neighbors, and not to grudge to others the progress we wish to achieve for ourselves. The inter-colonial mail service of Netherlands-India has been lately re-let by contract to Mr. Eobinson. It appears that this gentleman has offered to prolong his line to Sydney, in. consideration of a subsidy of from £40,000 to £50,000. But it is proposed hj him to use vessels of about 500 tons burden, and to make the Australian extension so subsidiary to the local service among the islands, as to make it a slow service to Australia. On these grounds it is condemned by the projectors of the scheme before us, who propose an independent line from Batavia to Syoney, touching only e» route at Sourabaya, Coepang, Cape York, and Ifexebane. they ex-

$ pertto receive from Queensland and • New South Wales respectively; is not t stated, but they seem to calculate on a subsidy of 460,000 guilders, which is nearly £35.000, and of this they ask their own Gx>verument to contribute about £B>,oob. KEBOSENE. The " S. M. Herald" has the following interesting letter with reference to the lately-discovered kerosene-yielding mineral .— "We learn that Mr! Thomas Gγ. Barton, the eminent consulting gas engineer, of London, has written by the Jeddo's mail to his brother, the engineer of the Sydney Gas Company, as follows:— f I had the following paragraph set up for insertion in the last " Gas-lighting Journal," but had, in the meantime, sent round slips to all our Eastern Gas Companies at Calcutta, Bombay, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, &c. I have no doubt all will write to you to make further enquiries. The following is the paragraph referred to :—Discovery of Cannel* Coal in New South Wales.—Advices have been received by the last overland mail of a workable seam of cannel coal, which surpasses the hitherto unrivalled Boghead in richness, having been discovered about eighty miles from Sydney, near a line of railway now in course of construction. Its yield per ton is reported to be 17,500 cubic feet of gas, of tbirtyone candle illuminating power, and .745 specific gravity. The discovery must exercise great influence on gaslighting in Australia, the East Indies, China, and South America, by enabling the gas-works of those countries to use their local coals, and bring up the quality of their gas to a satisfactory illuminating power, by the addition of a small quantity of Australian cannel."