THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL CONTRACT.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 1004, 25 February 1871, Page 1

THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL CONTRACT.

When, with a flourish of trumpets, Mr Vogel announced the terms of his new contract for the San Francisco Mail Service, we took leave to doubt the wisdom of some of his ideas about it. We pointed especially to two of its provisions as unsuitable to the circumstances of the case and absurd in themselves. The attempt to make coasters of ocean-going steamers appeared, on the face of it, to be one which could not be successful. If really carried out, it must necessarily be at a large cost to the colony in the way of subsidy, because the contractors being business men would certainly add to their terms enough to indemnify them for the extra risk they were undertaking. Further, as soon as the scheme should be put in practice, it appeared inevitable that the coasting section of the voyage would have to be discontinued, because it must lead to delays 'and exhibit dangers which would deter prudent men from proceeding with it. . The other proposal by which Mr! Vogel presumed that he should be able to divert the trade between Australia and the United States out of its direct channel was even more absurd. To secure it, and to obtain, as he thought, the vantage ground from which he could safely retaliate upon Victoria for her opposition to previous trans-Pacific Mail Services, he wished to involve the colony in an annual expenditure very much exceeding its present means. Instead of desiring to have the co-operation of the neighbouring colonies in an enterprise of so much importance, his aim was to coerce them into accepting such a service as he should choose to give them — the best terms to be offered being a connection with the main line at some point in New Zealand. Such a proposition was absurd on the face of it, and the idea that this colony could derive benefit from tlib contemplated arrangement is equally so. Our criticisms were ill-received by a section of the public, and the accusation freely made that they were animated solely by a spirit of political hostility to the Government. The information received by the last mail as to the real position of this contract will probably have opened the eyes of the majority of persons to the soundness of our arguments. The fact also that-the existence of this contract — as it was Bupposed to be — has precipitated matters so far in Australia that Mr H. H. Hall has been able to negotiate for the establishment of an opposition line, entirely corroborates all that we have said on the subject of the attempt to coerce the colonies of the mainland into accepting a service via New Zealand.

When we condemned these provisions of the new contract, we did not indeed suppose that matters Were so bad as they have turned out to be. The prompt repudiation of the contract by the ship-owners whom it purported to bind, is a thing which no one could have expected. It is not usual for the Governments of important communities to enter into engagements which, binding on themBelves, may be so readily slipped out of by the other parties involved. Our experience of Mr Vogel's business abilities, as displayed in his contract for tne existing service, might, indeed, have prepared us for something of the sort. In that case, however, the PostmasterGeneral had been left to his own devices, the contract having 1 been made on his own authority and in Sydney. The new contract was made with the sanction of his colleagues, and, we had hoped, with the assistance of proper legal advisers. Yet the business appears to have been managed in a Btill more slovenly manner. A man whose doings earned for. him but, a very short time ago * gretf mi m-

happy notoriety, suddenly turns up as the business representative of a large ship-owning house. He is found eminently pliable — enters into the extraordinary contract about which we have heard so much in great haste, and without even visiting the ports to which he undertakes to run mail steamers of vast size. Any one but Mr Vogel would have been suspicious of a man who is ready to' do business in Ruch a style, No, doubt his way of doing things is so like Mr Vogel's own that that gentleman could not see anything peouliar or inappropriate in it. The beautiful simplicity displayed in the negotiations with Mr Hall was on this occasion surpassed. Speculation on the ultimate result <vould be premature. But one thing is now certain. It is to precisely those features of the contract which we condemned as absurd that the supposed contractors have objected, and in consequence of which they have repudiated the work of their agent.

Is it possible to believe that Mr Yogel was so innocent as not to know, all the time, the position in which his much boasted contract stood ? Why j was not the text of the agreement published in the same manner as those for the Panama Service and Mr Hall's San Francisco Line were, as soon as they were entered into 1 Why this precipitate journey of Mr Vogel's to San Francisco — an excursion which, so far as we can gather, had never been contemplated before Mr Neilson's arrival at Auckland? Was Mr Vogel deceived, or did he desire to deceive the public % When we consider the time at which all this happened — on the eve of a general election, upon the result of! which the fate of the Ministry^ of which ! he is the real head, was known to depend — the first presumption which rises in the mind is that the whole affair was an electioneering trick. It appears to be simply impossible that the PostmasterGeneral was aware that the person with "whom he was dealing had not the power to bind his supposed principals to such a contract as that which has been so blatantly published. The concealment of the text of the contract itself confirms the suspicion. So does the manner in which the elections, as to the date of which the country had, up to that time, been kept in unnecessary suspense, were hurried on as soon as the alleged contract was completed. If it should prove to be true that such a disreputable trick has been played upon the people of the colony, we hope it will meet with the condemnation it merits as soon as the facts of the case are brought under the notice of the Assembly.