THE NEW MAIL CONTRACT

Press, Volume XVIII, Issue 2493, 27 April 1871, Page 3

THE NEW MAIL CONTRACT

j"" " '"[Tram, the Wellington Post.] The contract enteral into by Mr Vocel with Messrs Webb and Holiaday personally. ; does not appear to differ very materially from the one previously made with Mr Stewart, as agent for Messrs Webb and , Holiaday. Contract No. 4. however, has a good deal more signing and sealing about it. ■ and is certified on all sides by notorial and consular certificates, and we" are even informed that there were two erasures and two interlineations in the body of the contract, aud these were made before the execution of the document. It may. of course, appear exceedingly improper to cast any doubts on the value or validity of stich a very correct legal document, but, after most carefully reading- the contract through, the only conclusion we can arrive at is that the whole thing is a carefully devised sham, never intended to *be carried out. Greater powers than Messrs "Vogel, Webb, and Holiaday have ere now entered into treaties, solemnly signed and as solemnly ratified, but which were to be read by the light of certain secret articles known only to the high contracting parties, and which entirely altered the meaning of the public treaty. There must be some such secret understanding between the parties to the present contract. Internal and external evidence shows that this is so. The Auckland telegrams announcing the signature of the contract stated that tbe first vessel was to make the coasting trip, and that, if practicable, the other vessels were to follow, but that if tney did. the line was not to go on to Sydney. Whence came this information ? There is not a word of it in the contract, and there was scarcely time for the invention of an elaborate fiction between the arrival of the news in Auckland and the writing of the telegram. Is it not probable that something more than the contract has been signed ' If a man goes into a shop and buys, say a bottle of Hennessy's brandy, at a price which will not cover the duty payable, he must know that despite capsule and label, the article he has purchased cannot be genuine. Indeed, when anything is purchased for notoriously less than the real value of such a thing if genuine, the strong presumption is that there is some deception. Shoddy often looks very well at first, but the difference between it aud real cloth is soon discovered by experience. Mr Vogel's contract looks very -well, but we believe it will prove to be but shoddy. The various uegociations on the subject of a Californian Mail Service have all tended to prove how accurate aud business-like were the statements made by Mr Collie when he visited the colony as Mr Webb's agent. Mr Vogel then laughed at him, his | principal, and the vessels proposed ; but what Mr Collie stated then has since been amply verified. Now the subsidy Mr Collie demanded for a sen-ice to Australia, calling at Wellington, was £100.000, £80.000 of which was to be paid by the colonies. £70.000 by America, aud £i O,OOO by the Sandwich Islands. Mr Collie put down the expense of running such a steamer as the Nevada from San Francisco to Sydney and back at £10,000, and this is the "sum "which ' was recently stated as the amount Mr Webb ' had demanded for making an experimental trip. By the present contract Mr Webb is , to have the same ships, make thirteen complete trips from San Francisco to Dnuedin and back, calling at four ports each way, and ! ' to have another steamer of equal power to 1 make thirteen complete trips from Auckland j to Sydney and back all for the sum of £50,000 j a-year. Something less than £2000 for a trip which will occupy oue steamer 710 hours, and another steamer 144 hours. No sane < man at all acquainted with what steamers ; cost to run will for a moment believe that \ IMr Webb would consent to run his vessels for auy such sum. It is not \cry long since ( Captain Troughton. manager of the A. S. N. | Company, told the Sydney Chamber of Com- £ merce what some of the expenses of running ( Hall's line were:—£Soo a month was spent i iv Sydney for marine stores, the crews got £1200 a month, the repairs cost £1200 a ( month, and insurance another £200 a month. ! Here alone for two small vessels we have an ( expenditure of £3400; this, too, without any- j thing for coals or depreciation. Mr Webb will require four vessels to fulfil his contract; their ( size and consequent working expenses will ( be much greater ; the insurance will be ' enormously increased by running down the | coast and yet he is only to get £4.200 of subsidy per trip. As for any hope of a subsidy ! from New South Wales, if that colony give's ' anything it will be to carry on Hall's "line by 1 Fiji, for the Chairman of the Chamber of \ Commerce at the meeting already alluded to i declared it was just about as wise to send the steamers to New Zealand as to send the P. ' and O. boats their on there way to Suez. If I Victoria subsidises aline, it will also be one ( via Fiji, so that there is very little chauce of Mr Vogel and Messrs Webb and Holiaday dividing between them, as proposed in clause E 10, the sum of £30.000 paid by the Victorian I Government for allowing the steamer from c Auckland to Sydney to run on to Melbourne. ± If there was no other proof of the absurdity of i the whole arrangement this clause would be sufficient. The whole of the service from * San Francisco to Auckland, with branches 1 to Sydney and Dunedin, is to be done for t £50,000 a year, but not less than £30,000 a [ year is to be demanded for a service between ; Sydney and Melbourne. As for a subsidy l from the Hawaiian Government, Mr Hall \ has, he says, received that, and the United r States Congress has refused to grant a i subsidy at all. Looking at all the circumstances of the case, we believe the contract f elaborately got up with unnecessary authen- I tications, is a mockery, a delusion, and a t snare ; that a little time will prove it to be c so, and will bring to light the real arrange- ± ment or understanding which probably exists between the contracting parties. £