The Invercargill Times. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1863.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 17, 16 December 1863, Page 2

The Invercargill Times. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1863.

A good many months ago — before the Lake District had made this Province what it is at present — it was gravely argued by certain gentlemen that the establishment of a Southland Steam Navigation Company would prove a profitable speculation. In those days Dee str et, with its long rows of stores and hotels, was scarcely thought of, and more than half of the other streets in the town were covered by dense forest, and their direction only to be ascertained by an examination of the surveyor's pejjs. There was a jetty, a <tfol, a few "shanties," and several other signs of growing civilisation ; butlnvereargill,as it now stands, existed only in the minds of a few tolerably far-seeing individuals. The railway had not been planned, aud the roads were passing through a series of very remarkable experiments at the hands of Government officials!, — experiments which would have considerably astonished Cobb and Co. if they had at that time ventured across to the land of the Maori. When this project for a Southland Steam Navigation Company was first mooted, we opposed it, on the ground that there was nothing in the circumstances of the Province to warrant the expenditure, in such a manner, of the large sum of money required to carry out the scheme efficiently. We thought the capital might be better employed, and that it would be cheaper, for som- time at least, to depend on the means of communication, with our neighbours io Australia afforded by the steamers which gave the Bluff a passing cali on their way to other ports. We are still of opinion that in those days the idea of a Southland Steam Navigation Corn* pany was premature, if not absurd. It seemed somewhat analogous to a man starting his private carriage and pair, when the state of his finances made a ride in a penny *' bus au act of extravagance. What Southland was then, and what it is at present, are two very different things. It is in close proximity to a chain of rich gold-fields, the trade with which is daily increasing. There is a well-appointed line of coaches running regularly from the port to the inland towns which have sprung up, as if by magic, on the borders of Lake Wakatip. A railway has been commenced, aud the electric telegraph will soon make its appearance. In shorr, from a very small and insignificant Province, Southland has advanced to a position which bids fdir to place her at least second in point of wealth and importance oil the list of New Zealand settlements. The time has arrived when a far more satisfactory state of things in regard to our coiniiniiiLatiou with Australia ought to be looked for. Let those who twelve months since advocated the formation of a Steam Navi•.'tition Company, take into consideration the altered circumstances of the Province. Let them be at the trouble of comparing the Southland of that time with the Southland of to-day, and they will bu compelled to acknowledge, that if a local company stood the slightest chance of succeeding then, its prospects would be a hundredfold better now. We continually have to draw attention to instances in which the mercantile community of the Province, iv particular, and the public generally, are put to an cuorinoui amount of inconveuientx-,

through the irregularity and uncertainty whicu at present prevail in the management of the steamboats running between New Zealand and Australia. Southland is to a great extent at the mercy of the various captains, and how much slkj has suffered in this respect, most of our readers are well aware. We have no wish to particularise, but scarcely a month passes without some mishap occurring eitlver to passengers or mails. If there were a line of steame-s, owned by Southland men, and regularly plying between the Muff and the ports of Australia, the evil would, to a great extent, he remedied. The question may be raised as to whether, even now, tho money would be forthcoming for this most desirable object ; but we have little fear on tbat head, and still less about the profitable nature of the speculation. Our citizens have already done wonders for the Province, more, all things considered, than the colonists of any part of New Zealand ; but if they wish to continue to advance, if they wish to retain what they have already got, they should at once take steps for securing a really good and regular means of communication with the places from which most of our supplies, and a very large proportion ofour immigration, are drawn. When, in former days, we argued that our object would be attained by the mail steamers, &c, stopping for an hour or two at the Is!uff, it was because the Province could afford nothing better; but altered circumstances require different treatment, and it is necessary for the welfare of Southland that she should have a line of steamers f f her own. We recommend the matter to the serious consideration of our merchants, with the fir-n conviction that many mouths will not elapse before the Southland Steam Navigation Company becomes an accomplished fact. — •» . In our issue of Monday last, we republished from the Melbourne Lem/er a somewhat extraordinary account relative to the brig Grecian, now lying at the Bluff. The extract referred to contained a statement made by a man named Turner, then employed on board the Urania, at Melbourne, formerly one of the crew of the Grecian. This man asserted that Captain M'Grath, while ostensibly engaged in a whaling voyage, was carrying on the nefarious trade of a slaver, and he details with such an apparent air of sincerity, as regards places and dates, that if his statement should turn out a fabrication, the man "lit s so like the truth," that the most sceptical might attach some credence to his story. At the time we republished Turner's statement, we refrained from referring to the fact that, some weeks previously, we had published a long extract from the log of this very vessel. In our issue of to-day appears a letter from Captain M'Grath, in which, after indignantly deiiyiug the whole statement, and passing some very emphatic comments on the journal which originally trave admission to tinstatement, he refers to those entries in the vessel's log, which would, as far as dates are concerned, correspond nearly with those referred toby Turner. In order to clear his character, and that of his vessel, from the imputation thrown upon them by the story of Turner, Captain. M'Grath, it appears by his letter, makes a declaration before the Resident Magistrate at the Bluff, in which he is corroborated by a portion of his crew, denouncing the story of Turner as false from first to last. So, for the present, the matter is at an end. But, still, we think something further remains to be done. The whole statement of the man Turner is, very probably, a well-concocted tissue of falsehoods ; the man, perhaps, being actuated by some malicious motive or other in endeavoring to injure his Armer employer ; but, at the same lime, it is just so fur within the limits of possioility that there may be tome degree of truth in his statement, that we think some further investigation should be made. The accusation is of so grave a character, that its refutation should be more clearly made than by the declaration of Captain M'Grath — the person, accused — eveu wheu supported by a portion of his crew. We hardly know what legal course should be adopted, in order that a more searching inquiry might be made. The person irom whom emanated the accusation, is at present, we believe, io Melbourne — or, at least, was there at the time his statement first appeared in the Melbourne journals — while the captaiu of the Grecian is in Southland. We should imagine that by this time some intimation of the last-mentioned fact has been made known to the authorities in Victoria. The law must be sufficiently comprehensive to admit of something more being done, in order to afford a clearer explanation of what even now is enshrouded in a little mystery.