POSTAL COMMUNICATION.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3410, 20 June 1868, Page 5

POSTAL COMMUNICATION.

Almost coeval with the establ ishment of the Panama line, the Americans have established a steam mail service across the North Pacific. The houour of first openingf out a steam route across the Pacific belongs to British enterprise, or rather to Australian enterprise, seeing that the colonial Government found the subsidy on the faith of which the company invested its capital. But the Americans, if second in the field, are pushing their enterprise with a zeal that will soou make their position the first in importance. In addition to the line from Panama to California, and from California to Japan, the Pacific Mail Company has a branch line from S*n Francisco to Honolulu. A project is now being matured for getting an additional subsidy for an extension of this line to Sydney. A map appended to a report recently laid before Congress shows a plan of the different existing and proposed routes. From San Francisco to the Hawaiian Islands it a steam journey of eight and a half days. An extension of the line to Sydney would involve an additional journey of only twenty days, and there would be a convenient stopping- place for coals, nearly halfway, at theFijis. The journey from Sydney to San Francisco would therefore be one of only twenty-eight and a half days. This line would also have the additional advantage of affording a quicker passage from Australia to Japan than at present exists ; for the mail route from San Francisco to Yokohama calls at Honolulu on its outward route, though on the homeward journey it takes a northward curve. A passenger from Sydney, therefore, would reach Honolulu in twenty days, and Yokohama in another thirteen and a half days, or thirty-three and a half days altogether. From Japan there are steamers to all the ports of China. This is not the only suggested line which would,make Honolulu its port of call, for a line is traced from Panama to Hongkong. By this route, from Pauama to Honolulu would be a journey of 18 days, aud from Honolulu to Hongkong 24 d»ya. A glance at the map, with the various routes thus charted upon ifc, shows the maritime importance of the Hawaiian group. It occupies a commanding central position in the North Pacific. It is the point of intersection of the various traffic routes which steam navigation is sure within a few years to establish, and there is n > rival to its pretensions. Asa coaling and commercial depOt, therefore, its future importance seems to be assured. The Americans are forward to perceive this fact, »nd the Amerieanisation of this little community is being pushed on at a rapid rate. By way of promoting this result, a reciprocity treaty has recently been negotiated. On this point au American journal says : — ''Honolulu advices state that the reciprocity treaty with the United States is the absorbing topic. Although the Government advises the ratification of the treaty, the fact cannot be concealed that the Ministry is dissatisfied with the manner in which it has been brought about. In a pecuniary aspect the treaty may seem very disadvantageous to us, but considered in a political light it is a master-stroke of policy. It will completely Americanise the island", aud settle for ever the question as to which foreign Power shall dominate in framing the future policy of the Hawaiian Governnseut. The deficiency in the Hawaiian revenue created by the treaty is estimated at 100,000 dollars. The Legislature has passed a bill providing for this deficiency by increasing threefold the tax on real and personal property, The advantages which Victoria, Vancouver's Island, as a free port, once offered for trade with the Hawaiian Islands, in competition with San Francisco, have been lost by the recent adoption of a tariff by the Colonial Government. The terms of the reciprocity treaty, aud the admirable warehousing system of the United States, now give all the advantage to San Francisco." This treaty has been only a preliminary step tothe ultimate annexation of the islands. The United States Government has changed its policy with regard to outlying territory. At one time it declined to hold distant posstssions. Now it seems greedy for them. Russian America has been purchased, so have the Danish West Indies and the Bay of Samana. Cuba is being angled fo-, and the Hawaiian Islands are being prepared for the annexation proceB3. At a time when Great Britain is disembarrassing itself of distant and detached possessions, America is accumulating them. If American policy were that of free tra'Je, the hoisting of the stars aud stripes on islands that are the centres of commerce would probably be an immediate gain to the world. And it may be that experience will show that for these detached insular possessions fres trade is the only prosperous policy, however strongly the republic may cling to its ultra-protection and its rigid navigation laws for the main-land. British experience has shown in Singapore, and elsewhere, that for iusular entrepots a free port policy is the surest basis for prosperity. As the lawa of nature are not usually reversed, American experience will probably teach the same lesson, even though the world should have to learn it by an inverse process. The operations of the Americans in the North Pacific will, in a few years, make a great change. The national subsidies that have precipitated the formation of the great railway across the continent, and the establishment of steam navigation across the Pacific, will make a sensible diversion in the course of trade. Tb* gold of California will go westward to " the East," and the teas of China will find their way to the States of the Upper Mississippi, not, as hitherto, by way of New York or New Orleans, but by th« directest road, from San Francisco, and across the Rocky Mountains. It is evidently the policy of America, to spare no paina to develop the traffic of the North Pacific. Some years a^o there was a sharp contest for the navigation business of ttafNortli Atlantic. But the fate 3 were against the enterprising republicans, and they succumbed. There is bucli a multiplicity of steam lines now across the Atlantic — English, German, and French— that there is no excuse for a Government subsidy, and without such a subsidy there is no encouraging margin for profit. But the North Pacific is all virgin ground. There is no competition there. The Americans are not only first in the field, but they have the ground all to themselves, and on those waters they bid f »ir to consolidate a great maritime power. Great Britain makes no pretensions Jin that quarter, haying no territory there but that of British Columbia j and Russia, Japan, and China cannot dispute the naval pretensions of the United States. The French have sometimes aspired to call the Mediterranean a French lake, and the Russians have endeavoured to make the Black Sea a Russian lake. The Americans aßpire to call the North Pacific au American lake, and with perhaps more reason. —S. M. Herald, June 6.