THE SOUTH. NON-ARRIVAL OF THE PANAMA BOAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 897, 28 September 1866, Page 4

THE SOUTH. NON-ARRIVAL OF THE PANAMA BOAT.

Br the arrival of the s.s. Egmont we have late Southern files, extracts from which will be found elsewhere. The Kuahinc. with the Panama mail, due in Wellington on the 21st, had not arrived by the 2-Ith. The determination of the New South Wales Government to withdraw its share of the subsidy, unless Sydney be made the terminus of the main trunk line, has caused no small amount of consternation in Wellington. The JYelson Examiner points out that the matter is not one between the Governments of the two colonies, but between the Company and New South. Wales. It says :—" The question appears, "however, to be one which must be " settled by the Company. Should they re- " fuse to make the concession asked for, and " the New South Wales Government; are " equally firm, there is a chance of this " colony having to choose between the pay- " ment of the entire subsidy herself —an im- " possibility under existing circumstances — " or of allowing the Panama service to drop " altogether." We do not, however, believe that the company will refuse to make what the Examiner calls a concession. On the contrary, it will more likely be found that the company will very readily enter into the newly proposed arrangement, and at once see the advantage which such a change will bring to it. The Examiner very innocently admits, in a previous portion of its remarks, that, "knowing '■ as wo do the vast difference between the " price of coal iii Sydney and the price which " the company will pay for it at Wellington, " a difference which must almost amount to " £\ a ton, there must be something very " considerable to be gained by making Wel- " lingtou the final halting place of the ocean " boats to counterbalance this extra ex- " pense." The something very considerable has been represented to be the difference of five days in the passage from end to end as between Panama and Wellington and Panama and Sydney, but this difference w.ilj soon be acknowledged to be a purely imaginary one. Practically, the distance between Panama and Wellington by the direct line to Cook's Straits, and between Panama and Sydney by keeping a high Northern latitude and passing N*orth of the North island i 8 the same The actual extra distance is saved in avoiding a succession, of winds more or less ad-

Terse and heavy,inet with .ihfthe.dire.rf:route ; t6 : :^ook's ; (Straits/:;Moreover, adopting; :tHe Northern route,.:the. real difficulty of the undertaking,, which consists in carrying sufficient coat from port to port, could he oh- : yiated by making Tahiti a., coaling .station.