STEAM COMMUNICATION. (From the Nelson Examiner, March 24.)

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 299, 11 April 1849, Page 3

STEAM COMMUNICATION. (From the Nelson Examiner, March 24.)

As the Celestial Empire ii bettered by tbe Brother ol tlte Moon, and his happy subjects, to be the eye of the world, 10 is Auckland, in reference to the other parts of New Zealand, regarded by the Southern Cross. It alraoet seems to be a question with our contemporary whether such places as Wellington, Nelson, Taranaki, Otago, Wanganui, &c, &c, hare any real exist* cnce ; at all events, their inhabitants, if they have any, must be a very ethereal race of morals, not encumber, ed wilh many of the base wants which press so heavily on the ordinary sons of men. In discussing the subject of Steam Communication for the Colon v, in an article we copied into our paper last week, the Cross has attempted to prove that the undertaking, it made, must necessarily be a failure, and has shown, in hit way, that tbe calculations we tome time ago published of the probable returns a vessel would yield that should ply up and down the coSt, and call at the principal ports, are " simple expositions of the grossest ignorance." The way, however, in .which this is done, it a little remarkable. It waa stated, as one item of freight, that 1,000 tons of flour might be sent from the producing settlements of Nelson and Taranaki, to the non-producing settlements of Auckland, Wellington, Otago, and Wanganui ; the Cross •• presumes*' the whole of the 1,000 tons must be intended for Auckland ( how can it be required elsewhere ? ), and as something less than 1,500 tons is its yearly consumption, now obtained from Sydney and Van Diemen's Land, we have clearly no business to think of competing with other colonies in our own markets, although we could undersell them from 1 0 to 15 per cent. But it would seem that there has been discovered at Auckland a substitute for the first necei■ary of Me, and, like our Southern friends, our Northern brethren are no longer to stand in need of bread. The Cross does not hint where tbe substitute is to be found. At present it is a profound secret— whether ii is to be dug up, like the kauri gum, from the sites of the old forests, or gathered from the branches of living trees, like the bread-fruit of the Sandwich and other islands, we are kept in ignorance. We are only informed of the fact, that the 7,000 inhabitants of Auckland, mto the other day were consuming nearly 30 tons of flouW week, are for tbe present year to require not niore than 100 or 200 tons of foreign supplies, and nest year not a, single ounce 1 Tbe little which may continue to be grown on the spot, will be reserved, we conceive, for the few by whom the change of diet will not be relished. We have sot supposed that the Cross has contemplated an increase of cultivation of 8,000 or 9,000 acres of land within the next year, which is what would be required before Auckland could be independent of what the Cross calls " foreign supplies, " because we know it is no trfling matter to break up and cultivate that quantity of land in New Zealand, and tbe population of Auckland believes itself to be better employed — at leant so the papers told us a few months ago ; and the New Zealander assure! us still, that it is quite ignorant of any advances beiDg made in cultivation. As the people of New Zealand are to give up the use of flour, so also the consumers of beer are to be reduced to 3,000, and these privileged individuals are all to reiide »t Auckland, to driuk the " home brewed,"

manufactured on some new principle, in which barley forms no ingredient. We said, if we did not export beer to Wellington and Auckland, the breweries in these places would gladly take our barley ; but the Cross declare! they will hare neither — the article mult be struck out altogether from our list of freights ; and from a love of Sydney, they will prefer going to that marker, and pay duty, double freight and commissionsi for the same article. The only other article in our li«t of freight! which the Cross condescends to notice, is £ J l,ooo for general merchandiie between all the settlement!, But l(Aunkland is overstocked with goods of almost every description, and holds out no prospect of requiring any from Nelson or the other settlements." Did it not occur to the Cross, that when Auckland was glutted with goods, the other settlements might be bare, and with the assistance of steam, the supply throughout the colony mifirht be equalized 1 Or, at supgested by the New Zcalander, there being a steamer to distribute merchandise along the whole coast of the islands, the markets of the principal ports would be so much enlarged, that our imports would reach us direct, and we should not receive them second-hand, as at present from the neighbouring colonies ? The arguments of the Cross against increased relations and intercourse between the residents of different parts of the same country, are icarcely worthy of the journalist who holds such enlightentd views on general subjects. We should not have been surprised to have heard them fall from ionic antiquated politician, who had watched with jealouiy every improvement which the present century has witnessed, content to live ai his fathers had lived before him. But we thought the Southern Cross was of another school. The suggestion of our contemporary that, instead of a steamer, we should starta couple of small sailing yes. sels, does not mert our views., Unfortunately, sailing vessels do not make passages with the tame regularity as steamers, and their voyages in coasting are apt sometimes to be very tedious. Then also they have not the same facility for entering and leaving harbours against head winds ; and, directing our eyes to Manaktu, we know that a fortnight's detention there is by no means unusual. We look to the transmission of fat live stock as no mean item of our future intercolonial trade, and these, kept long on shipboard, huve always a stupid propensity to get thin. A< we said recently, when we noticed some remarks of the Cross on this subject, the inhabitants of the d fferent settlements of New Zealand want to know more of each other, to feel that their respective abodes are portions of the same colony, to he able to unite in j promoting common benefits and in resisting common injuries ; to be drawn together by the ties of friendship and kindred, to give up local jealousies, to learn to respect and love each other, and, in ihort, to become one people. This can never be done so long as our relatious with each other remain as they are ; we may form a number of thriving settlementi, but can scarce ly be said to be a country ; and the best remedy for this evil is the establishment of a Steam Commanication.