PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY.

Press, Volume XI, Issue 1347, 2 March 1867, Page 3

PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY.

We extract the following from the "M Mall Gazette":— The directors of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company have celebrated the completion of their twenty-fifth year by issuing " a statement of the position and operations of the company from its incorporation to the present time," which is in effect an elaborate defence of the company's administration, and a reply to the chronic criticism by which it is assailed in the newspapers. Leaving this for the consideration of those who are most concerned in It; we turn to come interesting and valuable information about matters on which many persons are profoundly ignorant. The peninsular and Oriental Company are the great carriers between England Si* East ' and their b Ußi ness divides itself mainly into two branches—the rcarnage of passengers, and the conveyance of her Majeety's mails. Few persons when they get their letters and papers from India or Australia any idea of the complicated machinery by means of which they «*ewe them. The mail service with - Weliaefc, as carried on by the PeninOriental Company, differs entirely from that with any other part £ \ ne . w orld. Its three principal Shanghai, and CalS"Xo diS M ant »»Pectively 10,398 jjuee, 8999 miles, and 6483 miles from the terminal port on the iSW' , While ' if the BtailCo be . «oaputed to Southampton, the ter-

tnmal port in 1473 miles J»usfc Jb_e-addeiL _A mail steamer,leaves each of these distant termini at a date calculated to bring item simultaneously to Point de Gfalle; "the distances traversed by these vessels (taking the points of departure in the same order) are respectively 5230 miles, 3831 miles, and 1315 miles. The weather experienced by each is of a different character; the wind and currents that favor one obstruct the other; but the regularity of the service has nevertheless to be maintained. From Point de GralJe the three mails are carried in one steamer to Suez, and at Alexandria they are again divided between the steamers for Marseilles and Southampton. The Japan and local China service is not taken into account here; but when that is done each delivery in London of the mails from Calcutta, Japan, China, Australia, and intermediate places, involves the employment of no less than eight steamships, and a journey of 19,867 miles by sea and 952 miles by land. In the performance of one of these complete trips, mails, passengers, and cargo are delivered and received at eighteen portß, and are transferred from ship to ship five times. A fine weather voyage throughout is very rarely, if ever, experienced. If the India and China seas are calm during the European winter, the vessels are subjected to the most violent weather in the Bay of Biscay and in the Mediterranean. If the Bay of Biscay and the Tilediterranean are calm in the European summer monsoons prevail in the India and China seas ; and it is at the same time winter in Australia — the weather on the coast of that country being then equal in violence to any known in the Atlantic. The Peninsular and Oriental vessels never meet with icebergs, like those which traverse colder seas, but the very circumstance which ensures their freedom from this form of annoyance exposes them to another difficulty, which will be appreciated by those who understand something of the working of a steam-engine. Much of a steam-engine's efficiency! depends on the principle of condensation—condensation depending of course on a constant supply of cold water. Now the company's steamers in the East, during a great part of the year, navigate an ocean of warm water, the temperature of the sea being frequently over ninety: the working power of the machinery is consequently much impaired and decreased. Notwithstanding all difficulties, however, it is remarkable what a degree of punctuality is really secured. The mail contract imposes a very heavy penalty for not having a steamer ready to start to the day from the terminal and principal ports; but during the last twenty-five years the company have never once incurred that penalty, although since the commencement of the existing India and China contracts their steamers have started on those lines alone upwards of 4000 times. The conveyance of passengers to and from our Indian Empire and the Australian colonies requiries a considerable fleet. The number of passengers carried during the last twelve years has averaged about 16,000 firstclass, and 3000 second-class. The army, the navy, the church, and commerce have each, furnished their contingent, but it happens (says the statement), rather unfortunately for the company, that very few of these passengers travel by their own choice and free will, at least on the outward voyage. There is, consequently, a greater tendency to find fault than is met with on lines frequented by travellers bent on pleasure and amusement. The grumbling is chiefly on the score of charges and the commissariat on board. On both these points the directors have something to say for themselves. As to the first, they say that on opening the line to Calcutta in 1843 the cost of a passage to Southampton was fixed at £140, and the charge of the Egyptian Government for the transit was £12 10s, making a total of £152 10s ; but that since that period abatements have several times been made, and the cost of the same passage is now £99 10s. On starting the Australian line the fare from Southampton to Sydney or Melbourne was fixed at £150, transit through Egypt £7. The fare from Southampton to Sydney ;is now £120, transit through Egypt £4 10s. With regard to eating and drinking the directors show that while the Cunard Company charge at the rate of 2d per mile between Liverpool and New York, and the Koyal Mail Company and 2d between Southampton and St. Thomas's and Rio de Janeiro respectively, and without allowing wine, beer, or spirits, this company provides those comforts at the inclusive charges following: — Southampton to Alexandria, 2id per mile; to Bombay, 3£d; to Calcutta, 3d; to Sydney, 2£d. Moreover, when passengers grumble, as they so frequently do, about being badly accommodated, the public should bear in mind that they are often taken on board at the last moment on the J urgent representation of the imperative necessity for their journey and the assurance that they will put up with any inconvenience rather than be left behind. Of more importance is the fact that while the total number of passengers of all classes (including troops) carried by the company's steamships during twenty-five years may be safely computed at over half-a-million, not more than five or six lives have been lost by wreck or other casualty. The company pay an average of more than half-a-million sterling every year for coals, and an average number of 170 sailing ships is engaged annually in conveying coal to their stations. Unfortunately the coals suffer greatly in transmission, and notwithstanding all the expense incurred for the protection from the effects of climate, they undergo a deterioration of fully 20 per cent, from their original quality before they are burnt. Including London and Southampton, nolessthan fourteen principal and subsidiary establishments have to be kept up, and there are employed altogether 8250 pereone afloat and 4351 on shore.