THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL CONTRACT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 245, 29 July 1876, Page 9

THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL CONTRACT.

In the San Francisco Chronicle of June 12 the following letter appears : TO THE EDITOR. SlB, —I read with very great interest your New York correspondent's letter detailing those Btock-jobbing transactions which so injuriously affected the credit of the Pacific Mail Company. From collateral evidence, I am convinced of the accuracy of your correspondent's narration. In to-day's telegrams it is stated that the new directory agreed to carry out the financial engagements of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and it was also Hemi-officially announced that the City of Sydney would sail on her due date for Australia, with mails and passengers. Now, although willing to believe the latter utatement, I am puzzled to reconcile it with the last paragraph in your veracious correspondent's letter. He writes : " The Australian branch of the Pacific Mail Steamship line will be discontinued. It was started as a feeder of the overland routes, and has been a losing investment." Touching the loss it is sufficient to say that it was entirely occasioned by the company starting the service before it was in a position to carry it out; since then, the line promises to be-a commercial success. But the gravamen lies in the statement that the Australian branch of the company's service is to be discontinued, modified to some extent by what subsequently appeared. Now, as I understand the position, it is this : The new directory will not force the company into liquidation, but reserves to itself the right of making default on the Australian and New Zealand contract, because it happens to be a feeder to the overland routes and not of the Panama and its marine connections. If I am correct in this opinion (and I think the facts warrant it), the result will be damaging to the trade and commerce of San Francisco, for I am certain that henceforward no American steamship proprietary will get a subsidy from an Australian colony, and it is more than probablp the pasHenger travel will be entirely diverted to the Eastern and over-sea routes. There is a limit beyond which even the Australasian credulity cannot be stretched, and in this matter I think that limit has been fairly reached. When Messrs. Hall and Webb and their combinations respectively made default, the colonies magnanimously passed it by; should, however, the Pacific Mail Company follow their example the contract penalties will most certainly be enforced, and the growing trade between the Australian group of colonies and the Pacific slope will be nipped in the bud. This may be a light matter for Eastern speculators ; it is no light matter for California. The Pacific slope is attracting men of colonial experience to its shores, who bring skill, energy, and capital to the development of its vast natural resources, but this steadily growing emigration will be stopped should faith not be kept with the subsidising colonies by the Pacific Mail Company. And here it may be right to mention that the Governments of New Zealand and New South Wales provoked considerable opposition by accepting the Pacific Mail Company's tender, when # the service might have been given to a colonially owned and manned company. As one who voted for the contract as it stands, and who endeavored for years to extend the trading intercourse between New Zealand and San Francisco, I would be greatly disappointed to think that the liberality and good faith of the colonies are treated simply as factors in speculative combinations of Wall-street operators. San Francisco, however, has a direct interest in this matter, and should make its influence felt. The Press of San Francisco, which has always been unanimous in advocating measures calculated to benefit the community at large, will, I trust, make common cause, and insist that good faith is kept with the Australian colonies, which represent greater wealth in proportion to population than any new country except Califernia. As a proof of this I quote the following statistics from official documents, which are at the service of any one who may desire to verify the figures. Thus, for the year 1874 :—Population, 2,233,100 ; revenue, 63,178,940d01. ; imports, 224,086,565d0l ; exports, 214,507,300d01. ; miles of railway open, 1781 ; miles of telegraph open, 22,038. Since then New Zealand alone has completed several hundred miles of railway, and will have over 1000 miles constructed before the end of the present year. In addition to which New Zealand, New South Wales, and Queensland (three of the Australasian group) have laid over 1200 miles of cable, connecting New Zealand with the telegraph system of the Australian mainland, and thence with the commercial world. These are facts which Californians ought toknow. The Australasian trade is chiefly done with Great Britain, but the United States tariff is wholly to blame for this. That, however, is a political question to which I have nothing to say ; but as an old colonist I am concerned in the success of the mail service between the United Kingdom and Australasia via San Francisco. Should uncertainty prevail as hitherto, the passenger travel which has begun to set this way will go by the Eastern route via Torres Strait, under the Queensland subsidy, connecting with the P. and O. boats at Shanghai, or by the P. and O. line direct from Australia to Galle, or lastly by direct ocean steamers touching at the Cape of Good Hope. Indeed an influential party in the New Zealand Legislature is in favor of subsidising a direct line of steamers to England by way of Magellan Strait, and from my knowledge of its moving spirits, I should not be surprised to learn that the scheme was generally supported, if Wallstreet speculators continue to shuttlecock the Australian contract. Doubtless the contract requires modification, and any reasonable proposal for that object would most probably be favorably entertained by the Governments interested. " New Zealand. San Francisco, June 12, 1876.

In the same newspaper of June 13th, the following reply appears : The Australian Line.—An Impracticable Route the Cause op Failure —Intercolonial Jealousy.—To the Editor. Sir, —Every word your correspondent "New Zealand" employs to represent the importance of maintaining efficient steam communication between this port and Australia, New Zealand, and the isles of the Pacific, ought to meet with general concurrence here. Much more, from the same standpoint, might be urged, and with deserved emphasis. But if the present line is to follow the destiny of its predecessors, it is as well it should be known that the cause of the failure attaches entirely to the contracting colonies and particularly so to New Zealand. The truth is, the route insisted upon is an utterly impracticable one. Known to be so by those who insisted upon it, and proved to be so by the clear lights of experience. Whether the service be performed by an English, American, or colonial line, they must each and all alike fail, so long as a silly intercolonial jealousy is allowed to interpose so grave a difficulty as that of compelling large ocean-going steamers to needlessly travel around the entire coast of New Zealand, and to call in at each of her ports. The round voyage is lengthened from 14,000 to 17,500 miles, a connection at Fiji is involved that cannot be worked by any conceivable time-table, a transhipment of cargo is necessitated in the harbor of Kandavau, which is totally unsuited to such an operation, and five steamers are required to perform the service, while if the proper and natural route were followed three would suffice to do it, and that with much more dispatch, certainty, and comfort than are now attainable upon any terms. All this and much more is known to Sir Julius Vogel, Premier of NewZealand, who, when away from home, Avill freely admit that " the route is unworkable in practice ;" yet being compelled to yield to silly local jealousies that he despises he insists upon a service that he knows is impracticable. Let the colonies brush aside a difficulty that is unworthy of them, and then there need be no such word as fail in connection with their mail service via this port. That done, a claim might be made upon this country that would be well nigh irresistible. These Australian steamers carry our correspondence with Hawaii—a kingdom with which we desire to cultivate closer connection —and they give us communication with New Zealand and Australia. In return for these advantages it is only right that we should pay our fair share of the expense. In regard to the Pacific Mail Company I agree with your correspondent that it is an unsafe institution to rely upon so long as it is knocked about on Wall-street like a shuttlecock and battledoor. —Yours obediently, W. M. N.