AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND MAIL LINE.

Press, Volume XXII, Issue 2855, 2 October 1874, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND MAIL LINE.

The San Francisco Post of August 13th says—To conclude from the announcement that the steamship Macgregor will sail for Honolulu, Kandavu, Auckland, and Sydney on Monday next, carrying H. B. M. mails that the troubles of the Australian line have happily terminated, would be far from correct. The affairs are as much mixed as ever, but there is still reason to hope that all the difficulties will be adjusted in time so as to place the service on a perfectly satisfactory footing. But meanwhile the management is just as bad as it can be, and it is utterly impossible for J. C. Merrill and Co, the agents here, to do anything to improve matters without incurring still further . serious expenses. Already the company is indebted to tbem to the tune of about 20,000 dollars, and until they can see some way of recovering that large amount and being reimbursed for any future outlay they may make, they do not feel themselves justified in expending more money to prop the credit of the line. This ia the reason why the overland railroad orders brought by the Macgregor passengers have been repudiated. The original understanding was that H. H. Hall, the managing director in Sydney, should make regular remittances to cover the cost of the railroad tickets. This he has failed to do, and tbe railroad companies, after acknowledging the orders brought by the passengers of the Cyphrenes, more than two months ago, decided to recognise no others until a more certain system of payment should have been adopted. No change having been made, they have held to this resolution, and the consequence has been that all subsequent orders issued on Hall's responsibility have been repudiated, causing the Australian line to fall into great disgrace. Nor are there at the present time any positive grounds to believe that the service will be restored to the confidence of the public. Such a daring violation of money contracts as receiving payment for services which are never rendered cannot but operate in the most prejudicial manner against the success of any enterprise; still, active steps are being taken to amend matters as much as possible. Mr Hanks, of tbe firm of J. O. Merrill and Co. has been in London for some time past endeavouring to effect such changes in the management of the line as will effectually prevent the odium of repudiation ever attaching to it again, and although hehas not yet succeeded in accomplishing his object, he has received sufficient encouragement to persevere in his endeavors. Indeed, he confidently hopes to have everything pertaining to tbe working of the line put on a sure financial basis leaving England. Notwithstanding that H. H. Hall is a principal to the contract for the Australian Mail Service, an apparently wel'-founded report has reached this city that the Governments of New South Wales and New Zealand have in consequence of recent disclosures affecting the management of the line, and which are calculated to injure the credit of those, colonies as contracting parties, resolved to remove him from the position he has held as Managing Director, and place the affairs of the line in more reputable hands. A dispatch has been received stating that Hall left Sydney in the steamship Mikado, which sailed on the Ist instant for this port. Whether he comes to pay up or otherwise arrange matters is not known. So far as the Australian line is concerned, his presence in tbe city as haviDg no further connection with it will prove most advantageous. It is expected that the English mail for Australia will arrive b re in time to permit of the Macgregor sailing on Monday next. Letters and newspapers posted in tbe United States will be forwarded as usual, the postal arrangements between the respective countries remaining unchanged. : ,

More trouble is threatened, it appears, in connection wit'- the Waitemata election. Mr Yon der Heyde was, for the second time (says the New Zealand Times) chosen to represent the district in Parliament, but his opponent on both occasions—Mr J. S. Macfarlane—is indefatigable, and determined to be member for Waitemata whether the people will have him or not. On the occasion of his first defeat he discovered that Mr Yon der Heyde was an alien in New Zealand, though a naturalised subject of Her Majesty in Australia. Now, it appears— when he has been more signally defeated than before —be has found that some irregularity occurred at the polling booth at Whau. It is stated that the Whau polling place was closed for an hour while the messenger went to town for more ballot papers, which hecame exhausted shortly 1 after noon. To mike amends for this loss of an hour, the sapient deputy-returning oflior kept the booth open an hour later, not closing till five o'clock, when really it should have been closed at four o'clock ; upon this, it appears, there is to be another petition against Mr Yon der Heyde's return. Regarding it the Southern Cross says '.—"There is no doubt that every vote that was giv. v after the hour of four o'clock is a bad vote. But nuless it can be proved that at least upwards of fifty voted at that polling place in favor of Mr You der Heyde after fi"ir o'clock —or that an equ il number were pievented from voting for Mr Macfarlane at this particular pace, in consequence of the booth bei.ig illegally closed for an hour—we do not think it at all likely that Mr Yon der Heyde would be unseated on petition on the ground of irregularity."