THE SAN FRANCISCO STEAM SERVICE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4181, 14 August 1874, Page 3

THE SAN FRANCISCO STEAM SERVICE.

It has already been stated that serious complaints were made by the passengerß by the s.s. Macgregor, on their arrival at Kandavau, as to the condition in which the vessel was sent to sea. The circumstances, and others kindred, are described by the Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne Argus, who says :—A serious matter, as disparaging to the service, is the complaint that has come back from Kandavau of the overloading of the Macgregor. She went away as full of coal as she could carry, and had the ill luck to meet with tremendously heavy weather at Btarting. The consequence was that she took heavy seas over her, and drenched everything, making the passengers not only very uncomfortable but very much alarmed. Had she been built after the fashion of the Loudon, with a valley in the waist, she might have foundered, but she has a deckhouse in the centre, and therefore was not exposed to the particular risk which proved so fatal to the London. Arriving at Fiji, a number of the passengers made a formal protest to the local agent, and demanded that the vessel should be lightened. He replied that as the vessel was then lightened to her tonnage, and as the voyage from Fiji to Honolulu was generally tranquil, there was no reason for alarm; but he promised not to put in the New Zealand cargo. The reason for the overloading of the Macgregor with coal was, that she was intended to run down to New Zealand without passengers or cargo, and that her destination was changed to the direct route, in consequence of the non-arrival of the Mikado; but this is a very insufficient reason for exposing some couple of hundred people to the risk of being drowned. The fact is, that the temporary service is being worked at a loss, and the agent is straining every nerve to keep down the coal account. Tho difference between coaling in Sydney and coaling at New Zealand, is the difference hetweou lis. and £'Z

a ton. Thanks to the compound principle, the steamers can run to San Francisco and back without coaling on the passage; but to -work the forked service, according to the plan laid down, they are required to do more than that. The route for each vessel is from Sydney to Fiji, then to California, back to Fiji, down to Ofcago, to Fiji once more, and back to Sydney. It is said that the new boats will be able to carry coal enough to do this, but the present vessels-cer-tainly cannot, and therefore their carrying capacity is strained to the utmost on leaving Sydney. The Mikado has been thoroughly overhauled in dock, and is said now to be in good order. Nearly all the boiler tubes had to be repaired, but the engines themselves are said to have suffered nothing from their- hard usage. The Tartar is intended to be the following vessel, by which ship Sir Hercules Robinson intends to go to Fiji on the errand as to which his commission has already been telegraphed from England. It is understood in Sydney that Sir Hercules has not been a warm supporter of the annexation scheme, being of ojmiion that an arrangement such as exists elsewhere for getting enlarged consular rights and powers would have been sufficient protection to a foreign population. A personal visit to the islands, however, may perhaps modify his views. But the object of his mission is not to persuade the Fijians to take either one course or the other, but simply to expound to them the views of the British Government.