The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1862.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVII, Issue 992, 14 May 1862, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1862.

From the outset we felt convinced that Mr. Ward had undertaken a hopeless task when he endeavoured, if such indeed was his object, to satisfy the nine provinces of this colony by his new postal arrangements. It required very little reflection to perceive that where nine provinces required a favour which could only be granted to one or two, at least seven would be dissatisfied with the apportionment, and envious of the lucky recipients. This has been clearly demonstrated in the case of Mr. Ward's proposed postal arrangements which have been received with unmingled dissatisfaction by a majority of the provinces of New Zealand. Otago, Wellington, and Nelson have been furious and loud in their complaints and if Canterbury has not been so demonstrative, it is not from ignorance that her interests have suffered by the change, but from a desire to forego selfish considerations in giving support to a scheme which is calculated to promote the general welfare of the colony. The natural difficulties in the way of organizing the mail service of New Zealand are so obvious as to need little comment. The geographical formation of the two islands stretching across thirteen degrees of latitude, with a coast line settled up and down on either side, suggests at once the impossibility of supplying an efficient mail service unless at a very great expenditure of money and contrivance. One of the first requirements of this peculiar formation is the necessity of a duplicate trunk service with Australia, and therefore a doubling of trouble and expense. Auckland from its northerly position is some hundred miles nearer Sydney than Melbourne, while Otago is nearer to Melbourne by the same distance. As Auckland is the seat of Government, and Duriedin the first commercial town of the colony, neither can afford to wait upon the other in the matter of a mail service, and so, two trunk-lines have to be subsidised. But this is not all. Wellington— the Empire Gily—puts in its oar and must have a trunk HnCe from Sydney also, under the direful threat of descending into the scale of a fifth-rate port, and so a third line with

Australia has to be established. The main lines being- thus provided, the next point is to carry out as perfect a system of inter-provin-cial service as possible, and if we may judge from the plan adopted by the Postmaster Genera], it is considered necessary that three separate boats should run up and down the coast monthly, partly for the mail service, and partly to carry on the trade of the colony. The necessity for two out of three of these boats may be attributed to the distance of the seat of Government, ,and the consequent need of maintaining rapid and regular intercourse. ;

Our readers can hardly fail to see that under the most favorable circumstances it must require an able head to arrange and work out a scheme embracing so many details of management as the Steam Postal Service of the colony. All this however is the least part of the difficulty which Mr. Ward has had to encounter. His progress has been stopped by, the natural jealousy ot the Provincial against the General Government, and when this has been disposed of; private interests, stronger than public differences, have interfered to prevent the completion of a scheme concocted with a single eye to the good of the colony as a whole.

A striking instance of this kind of opposition has just been exhibited in Wellington. It appears that the "Empire City" boasts of a local steam Company of which it is justly proud, and which possesses two pretty little vessels. This Company is fortunate enough to enjoy a subsidy from the Provincial Government of £1000 a year as an encouragement, we presume, to the efforts of its spirited local proprietors. It also appears to be driving a profitable trade in carrying the mails to and from the neighbouring provinces of Marlborough and Hawke's Bay, as well as produce and passengers to the South. Altogether it seems a very snug little Company, doing well, with a balance of £2000 to its credit at the Bank. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that its directors view with something like dismay the advent of two interloping- steamers which threaten to run their boats off the line. As honest men we should expect them to cry out in the interest of their share-

holders. As men of business they would naturally use every effort to appeal against this interference with the interests of the Company they represent.

Judging1 from a report of the proceedings in the Chamber of Commerce on the 17th ult. the directors of the Local Steam Company seem to have" succeeded in housing the sympathy^of the former body. So indignant do the members of the Chamber appear at the threatened interference with the vested rights of the local Company, that they seem altogether to have forgotten their proceedings at a previous meeting, when they distinctly stated, that provided a trunk line .were established with Sydney they approved of the other propositions of the Postmaster - General. Carried away by a sudden impulse of feeling, the. members gave vent to sundry strong expressions indicative of their desire to " knock Mr. Ward's arrangements on the head." This spirit of combativeness happily appears to have sobered down before the meeting terminated, the resolutions subsequently passed being worded in milder terms than those used by the first speakers. We should like to ask these belligerent gentlemen why, having committed themselves to an approval of Mr. Ward's measures, did they turn round and exhibit such pugnacity as to wish to get rid of them by " knocking them on the head ?" Surely they are not such narrow-minded traders as to dread the effects of an extension of the means of traffic and communication throughout the colony on the interests of their petty steam Company 1 As merchants they must strangely have mislearnt the laws which govern their calling.

At Otago Mr. Ward and his measures have afforded a fertile subject for the pressing necessities of the Editor of the 'Daily Times.' Making a rough guess, we should say that the postal arrangements and their author have afforded food for fi ve-and-twenty leading articles, each of which has been stronger in flavour and more energetic in style than the last. It is really the height of ingratitude to treat any gentleman in the way the daily journal of Otago has treated the Post-master-General. No one, we are sure, can better estimate the value of an indefinite subject for leading article writing than the editor of a daily paper in New Zealand. Mr. Ward and his doings must have been quite a boon to the i -Daily,' and yetin the very last num • ber which has come to hand there is a column and a-half devoted to gross personal abuse of of that honorable gentleman, in which he is charged with stupidity, cunning, tampering with the responsibilities of his office, and a breach of personal honor. Oh, that we should live to see such a perfect realisation of the fable of the old man and his ass!