THE ILL-PAID P. AND O. CO.'S DJ FENCE OF IT SHORTCOMINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 721, 7 March 1866, Page 3

THE ILL-PAID P. AND O. CO.'S DJ FENCE OF IT SHORTCOMINGS.

£FVom the Melbourne Age, January 15.) The ex planation offered to the Postmaster- j Gen- jral by tlie Peninsular and Oriental Steam Nav sprat ,ion Company, with regard -o the Austral' ian i anil service, sliows that interesting corporation in a new light. Whilst ingratecolonies lia re b< -on clamouring for punctuality, the mi iJjVnet I P. and O. Company demonstrates to the Jsril ;isli Post Office that it has paid no penn lties.< for late mails since 1863, and that the Aust rnlia n remonstrances must therefore be ' U1 ™es <*• In the co,omes a ? " lferre f to gl ]" bouri n K under some strange hallucination l mon the sl 'biect. Perhaps we have made the Zno e mis take, and the mails have arrived at sunn l mis » a ]j | It is, however, singular th. Opposition, Free Trader

and J roteCti -ist, journals of every hue of una j jotecoi j iavoj y unanimous in nothing polite - x \i our j ettGl , s auc i newspapers are else, n g r eecl thav us behind time. Regarding ° or .stantly reacliir. 0 f erro r to be a necessary *■" e acknoivledgmei. idmcnt, we have nothing P preliminary of arnei -ontractors. With dull to hope from our t. ount such constantly complacency, they vec. broken shafts, prooccurring misfortunes as ' falling "to the pollers dropping off ana fracturcd, leaks bottom of the sea," pistons " l t then, pleads sprung, and coals deficient. • the we do the work so ci. 'eless com- «■*« rsiw ■ ■ Australians ar r l p nll d 0. Comapny upon the of £ fracture St I I . ° XC of\ron However? without bargaining for * siun "as Consideration of teaching fee | b V. and 0. Company hovr to avoid casualtie., w

will put them in the way of reducing suet fatalities to a minimum. If we cannot exactly detail to them how to prevent accidents, we can at least pomt out those in the same buS who do avoid them let the P and O. Company servo an apprenticeship to the management of th» Cunard Company. Tho latter has not, we ore, had more than one broken shaft in twenty-live years'weekly mail service between -Liverpool and New York or Boston. But the owners of the Cunard steamships are always replacing their wom-out vessels with splendid successors. Instead of putting their ships on second-rate stations they sell them, in prefcrcnco to Continental Governments, and entrust CJvde ship and engine builders with commissions to do their best. But we are not liberal enough m tlie view of the P. and O. Company. If we do not " paralyse " the com* pany with our parsimony, it is more than hinted that they might for themselves discofer a method of preventing, as well as of foreseeing, such unavoidable accidents as short supplies of coal. " It's but little they pay me, and it's but little I teach them, said the ancient preceptor of a village dame-school, and our mail contractors have struck exactly the same note. In a leader published in the Daily Telegraph, and which bears such significant resemblance to the directors' explanation that we are disposed to regard the article as semi-official, we find our niggardless vividly contrasted witli others* liberality. For the American mail service the

average payment is equal to 9s. 2d. per statute mile, while our subsidy is stated to yield not more than ss. 7d. It is not, however, stated that the American service is carried on by means of side-wheel steamers of vast power—the finest iu the world—consuming whole coal-mines of fuel. "We are left to the good or ill fortune of inadequate screw vessels, incapable of carrying the coal supply for a run between Galle and King George s Sound below deck in the bunkers. There is a paragraph in the P. and O. Company's apology for its shortcomings which, if really acted up to in the spirit iu which it reads, would soon remove all causes of complaint. "The directors do not lrnow what better guarantee for regularity can be afforded than that which exists in the identity of the interests of the two parties principally interested in the contract, namely, the publir of Australia and this country and the company. If the company do the work with regularity, they do it at a moderate and estimated cost; if tlicy do it irregularly, whether the irregularity arises from accidents to machinery, or detention in consequence of adverse weather, they do it at a very heavy cost, [ and expenses of all kinds are entailed.' This irreproachable theory is precisely that to which the P. and O. Compauj r fails to act to. There ought to be no better guarantee for regularity required than the community'of interest of the contractors and the colonies. But by trying to serve us cheaply, they make the work expensive to themselves. They assure us that the Madras and the Bombay are possessed of the precise qualities which render them suitable for tho Australian mail service. The directors believe that the " maximum of regularity on a line su'ih as that between Sydney and Galle is not to be found in the employment of ships of moderate size," and so forth. JS T ow, this unfortunate belief of the directors in their old ships is at once at the bottom of our mail difficulties, and of the heavy bills for repairs which the company is called upon to defray. If the directors would, by way of experiment, run one of their largest and best vessels upon the Australian branch service, they would by such means fairly test what grounds really existed for their preference of boats of " moderate size." If only to convince the Australian colonies of the unreasonableness of their ignorant discontent, the P. and O. Company should indulge them with larger and more powerful vessels. If such a vessel were unsuccessful in reaching her destination at tlie appointed time, there would be some show of foundation for the assertion that the moderatesized Madras and Bombay were better suited for our mail conveyance. Tlie tone of stolid self-satisfaction which pervades the P. and O. Company's attempted justication renders it useless to look for remedy in that quarter, and we therefore desire to revive a suggestion we have already made. It is stated, and"generally credited, that India is very much dissatisfied with the P. and O. Company's performance of that portion of its mail contract. IS' ow, it is notorious that we are snubbed because the great steam company considers itself secure of the Indian mail service between Europe and Point de Galle. In order to shake its confident disregard of our remonstrances, a little diplomacy is needed. By opening negotiations with the Indian Government, the way mi<*ht be paved for joint reaction with, regard to the" entire .Eastern mail service. Although tho P. and O. Company can, perhaps, afford to disregard ail grievance, the case would wear a very diflerent aspect if India and Australia made common cause. One cxeuso offered us for our late mails is that tho detentions often occur between. India and Europe, and not upon the Australian branch. 1 liis should open the eyes of India. Such postal subsidy as India and Australia together contribute would bo in itself sufficient to create a rival company, and break down for ever the Cis-Suez monopoly of the P. aud O. Company. The experiment is worth trying; aud, if joint action were once determined on, we are convinced that the present contractors would find a more practical way of satisfying us than by a catalogue of unavoidable calamities. "We have had such vivid experiences of what the P. and O. Company's directors consider the " maximum of regularity," that any change can scarcely fail to be for the better. To continue so lame and halting a performance as that of last year is out of the question. If we are compelled to act on the offensive, we must ourselves undertake the service between the colonies and Galle"Wc have some steamers quite capable of the duty and which (we venture to predict) will be subject to fewer of these "unavoidable accidents " than are unblushingly acknowledged by tlie P. and O. Company. =— —===~—«