The New Zealand Herald. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1860.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1840, 7 December 1869, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1860.

Sm:TK.\!l r l! AGKNW. " Give every man vhine car, lmt few thy voice ; Take c.-ic-h mini's cunsiire. liitt reserve thy f ii<lt;.-i<ci». This above all,—To thin.i own self be true And it must follow, as the niplit the day, Thou rans't not then be falsu to any mail."

The Colony of New Zealand may be congratulated on tho energetic action taken by the Pacific Mail Company, for the establishment of a line of steamers between Sydney and San Francisco, which, touching at tho Bay of Islands, proposes to afford New Zealand a steam postal service with England and America, such as she ne\er before enjoyed, and at a charge which the colony may feel justified in incurring. As our readers are aware, Hie General Assembly, in its last session, passed a resolution enabling the JN'ew Zealand Government to oiler a sum of £20,000 per annum, for three years, as an inducement to any company to afford a monthly steam service between Now Zealand and San Francisco. Tahiti, ifc is believed, will join in the scheme; and Now South Wales must largely benefit by the establishment of such a line. Indeed, there is every reason to believe that the American Consul, Mr. Hall, before soliciting the assistance of the New Zealand' Government, had already secured that | of New South Wales, and therefore, we may presume that, as far as sub-' sidy goes, no obstacle exists to the | initiation of the project. American enterprise is a very different thing to anything of the kind we have been used to in this colony, and we should not, therefore, be surprised to find the line in full work before even the Assembly meets ngain in Wellington. The resolution passed by the As.sembly enables our own to take immediate action. Tho New South Wales Legislature will short] v be in session, and all that the Pacific Mail Company itself needs is a branch line of boats to meet tho Sydney line at Honolulu. The Pacific Mail Coinpauy already enjoys a vast trade in the Pacific, and with true American enterprise, grasps the opportunity afforded by the completion of the railway across tho continent of America to extend its operation in this hemisphere. We published on Thursday the pro posed time table between Sydney and Liverpool by this route, which, including stoppages, amounts to 44 days altogether, as it affects New Zealand, we have to subtract 5i- days, the time allowed between the Bay of Islands and Sydney, which really reduces the distance between New Zealand and Liverpool to something less than 39 days. This far eclipses anything that was done by the Panama line, and is altogether out of comparison with our present route of mail services, which even via Marseilles leaves England 34 days distant from the first port in New Zealand it touches, namolv Hokitika.

As might liave been expected, Wellington is already decrying the proposed route, because ' it makes a Northern port the port of call and departure, and actually proposes as an improvement the establishment bv New Zealand of a " branch line to " 3n^P ttno main lino of steamers at the " I"" , .]''") •"""I convey the English mails " a -, ntl .P ass eußers to and from Cook's " Straits." That the Independent, as a G-overnment organ, too, should lend its columns to such paltry and narrowminded views as these we are truly surprised. Is it already forgotten that the Manama line broke down, even with the assistance of an enormous subside-, simply because it passed by the centres of traffic, and made a port havin"neither trade nor population, rior power of expansion, its depot in this colony. Auckland will doubtless be the port of call, but the Bay of Islands is only a clay's steaming "from this great capital of New Zealand, the centre of its commercial enterprise and golden wealth. Even the Bay of

Islands itself is, commercially, and as far xis room for improvement goes, the superior of Wellington, to say nothing of the facility it aftbrils the steamers for coaling. And, as regards the question of time in the distribution of the mail throughout Now Zealand, nothing would bo gained by making Wellington the port of call instead of Auckland or tlie Bay. A vessel coming from the Kjis to Wellington must run down past Avickland and the Bay of Islands, and therefore nothing would be gained by making Wellington the port of call. Tliis much, however, could be the result, that the -Northern ports would have to wait for their mail until, having once having passed them, it reached Wellington, and would bo returned back by the first steamer; while tlie great advantage to be derived by this colony in connecting it directly by steam service with xVmeriea—tlie creation of trade and passenger traffic—would be lost, for it is only by bringing San Francisco into direct communication with a commercial port of importance in this colony that the expected good can be arrived ■ at. What the Wellington papers advocate is simply to connect the Fijis with Wellington, while the main stream of traffic rolls on past the Fijis direct from San Francisco to vSydncy.

And really after all the mail service is tlie least part of the gain which would accrue to New Zealand from the establishment of the proposed line of steamers. "What we need is enterprise, population, and capital, to make New Zealand progress in anything like a proper ratio. It has not hitherto done so. Wo arc too far from the mother country. Emigrants would pour as rapidly from the old country into New Zealand as they now do into the States, were tlie length and cost of passage no greater in the one case than in the other. And next in advantage to the emigration from the old country must rank emigration from America. Nay, in some respects it would prove more so— for receiving immigration through the States from home, we should get not only the most enterprising portion of it but immigration of a wealthier class. A closer intimacy with the States would soon effect a wonderful change with us for the better.