THE The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1886.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7826, 21 December 1886, Page 4

THE The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1886.

It was with much pleasure we found space in our correspondence columns in Saturday's issue for the letter of Captain McGregor, managing director of the Northern Steamship Company, with reference to the Wellington service via Taranaki. For the matter it deals with is one of groat importance to the public, and on this account it ought to be kept to the front until some satisfactory action regarding it has been taken by the Government. As we have already more than once pointed out, the advantages of rapid conveyance between Wellington and Auckland, which continuous railway communication from Cook Straits to aitara has made attainable, are to a large extent lost from the failure of the Government to provide a regular steam service between the northern terminus and the Manukau. The excuse for their inaction they somehow have contrived to foist upon the public is that the tenders they called for were unsuitable on account of their exorbitant character. Of this allegation the public have hitherto had no means of judging, as the terms offered were not disclosed. The letter of Captain McGregor shows, however, that it was not correct in so far as the tender of the Northern Steamship Company is concerned. Their ofler, he says, was based on the lowest possible estimate of profit, and was arrived at from the company's past experience of trade on that part of the coast. This surely is reasonable and fair. The Government, as we have previously said, has no right to expect that the service should be performed at a loss to the contractors. The best evidence that the Northern Steamship Company were considerate ,of .the public interest in the terms they submitted is shown in their expressed willingness to work the service for the Government for the period of a year, provided they are guaranteed against loss ; and even to consider favourably any other proposal which the Government may prefer. What more, then, could the Government wish for? More liberal terms they surely cannot expect ; and, if they are sincere in their professions of anxiety to see the full benefit of a speedy service established between the two principal centres of population and trade in the North Island, they will without any further delay open negotiations Jwith the company that has so liberally offered to do all in their power to open it up. In his communication Captain McGregor gives it as his opinion that, with a steamer connecting with the through train at New Plymouth, the service could be performed in 27 hours, either way, between Onehunga and Wellington. This quite corresponds with the estimate we gave in our issue of Friday last, when stating that the mails put on board of the company's steamer, the Gairloch, on the preceding Wednesday afternoon, would arrive in Wellington on the Thursday evening. This is a boon which, in these days of quickened activity, the Government will surely not withhold from the public; but, on the contrary, will do everything in their power to enable the travelling and trading portion of the community to avail themselves of the facilities for rapid transit, which the completion of the railway from Welling" ton to Waitara has rendered practicable. An opportunity is now given them to confer an inestimable advantage on the whole colony by providing a steam service to connect with the through trains at New Plymouth, and, should they neglect to avail themselves of it, the public will soon take their own way of rectifying that mistake.