THE MAIL SERVICE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4264, 19 November 1874, Page 2

THE MAIL SERVICE.

The circumstance that the time for the commencement of the permanent mail service by way of San Francisco, under the Hall-Fokbes contract, does not expire before February next, has prevented the two Governments of New South Wales and New Zealand from doing more than making arrangements for maintaining the temporary contract which Messrs. Hah and Fobbes had on hand, and for breach of which proceedings are to be taken against the sureties upon their bonds. The arrangements are that the two Governments, on joint account and in equal shares, shall maintain a temporary service until a permanent one is established, or in any case, until the month of June in the next year. The service to be four-weekly, and the vessels to call at Auckland both ways, and after the first trip, at Fiji also, if the New South Wales Government desire it. The October mail Has been talteil by the Maogregor ; tlie November mail will be taken by the Mikado, and that for December by the Cyphrenes. The payment to be £7,500 lor the round trip in each case. We learn that the greatest difficulty which has been met with in effecting even this temporary arrangement, and which will be still more formidable hereafter, has been the necessity, which appears to be imperative, that one of the boats of the main line shall be compelled to make a coasting voyage from the Northern port of call to Dunedin. For the present it is agreed, we learn, that the mail service between Auckland and Port Chalmers is to be done by a branch steamer, at the joint expense of this colony and New South Wales, and that severe restriction as to cost is imposed by the New South Wales Government. The extent of the difficulty caused by this condition of the existing contract may be measured by the fact that the North German Lloyds ask £120,000 a-year for a ten-knot service, with alternate through boats to Dunedin, whilst for the service at same rate of speed, touching at one safe port in New Zealand, they ask £BO,OOO only. The price of the coastal service would thus be £40,000 a-year. May we not not ask whether it is worth that sum to Otago or to New Zealand ? As a matter of fact, it is said that the A.S.N. Company, who are ready to take, as a permanent service, the line from Sydney via Fiji and Honolulu, on very favorable terras —on such terms, indeed, as must strongly incline the New South Wales Government to close with their offer and leave us out, —decline peremptorily even to consider a proposition which shall include a New Zealand coasting service by one of the large steamers. Under these difficulties we think that great credit is due to our representative in Sydney, Mr. Russell, for the skill with which his negotiations have been conducted, and that the loyalty and good faith of the Sydney Government to this colony, under circumstances of unusual external pressure, deserve recognition at our hands.