MAIL AND SHIPPING MATTERS IN AMERICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8556, 2 May 1891, Page 1 (Supplement)

MAIL AND SHIPPING MATTERS IN AMERICA.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

San Francisco, April 3. Postmaster-General JOHN" WaNAMAKKR has as yet granted no contracts for the transportation of mails under the provisions of the Subsidy Bill passed by Congress. It will bo remembered that the measure divided subsidised vessels into four classes, ranging from 8000 tons and--20 knots speed to 1500 tons and 12 knots speed. Under the provisions the Oceanic Company's boats will receive one dollar per mile on the outward voyage ; for, though they cm attain a speed sufficient to entitle them to the two dollars allowed secondclass vessels, their tonnage limits them to the third class. On the contrary* the Pacific Mail boats must remain in the third class, not having sufficiently powerful engines (though they have the requisite tonnage) to put them in the second class. The Spree family, the Mail Company, arid others of this coast have not yet decided'what they will do in the way of building new and larger vessels, and will not decide until the contracts are awarded. The Brazilian and other South American lines already plying under the American flag will receive duo attention. Austin Corbin, who was until recently president of the' Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, one of the strongest railway companies of tho East, is the originator of a new transatlantic steamer service, operations to establish which are to be begun at once. Mr. Corbin has fully explained his plan in Seaboard, one of the great American marine journals. His scheme is to build eight first-class steel steamers of 12,000 tons each, capable of making 24 knots per hour. Montauk Point, the" extreme eastern end of Long Island, is to be the American terminus, and Milford Haven will be the English harbour. The distance between these points is 2791 nautical miles, which is expected to be covered in less than five days. Passengers from New York can be landed at Montauk in two hours, and Milford Haven is but two.hours from London. Only passengers, express, and mails will bo carried. Corbin estimates that the first four steamers will cost something like 12,000,000d015, and expects to have them crossing the Atlantic inside of two years. No despatches have yet been received from Victoria, 8.C., indicating that the steamer West Indian has yet departed for the colonies. She was announced on her arrival there as " the first of the line between Victoria and Australia." The trade which she can divert is not generally believed to be of any great consequence. Despatches from Vancouver announce that two of the " tramp" steamers which came to San Francisco some months ago with cargoes of sugar from Java have been chartered for a term of years to carry lumber from Moodyville, 8.C., to the colonies. The plan is thought well of by local lumbermen, and they are not slow in saying that sail vessels are too uncertain to depend upon. It is also announced chat a very considerable extension of wharfage 1 facilities is to be made at Vancouver, 8.C., by the Union Steamship Company. . Complaints have lately been made of the i irregularity with which the mails destined ' for the colonies, Japan, &c., have been re ceived, and the steamer Mariposa is one day behind in consequence. Hereafter these mails will leave New York three hours earlier than usual, enabling them to make connection with the fast mail at Chicago, and so arrive in San Francisco one day sooner. . •