THE MELBOURNE "ARGUS" ON THE PANAMA ROUTE.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 190, 10 March 1868, Page 3

THE MELBOURNE "ARGUS" ON THE PANAMA ROUTE.

{From the Wellington Independent.)

By the Otago we liave received Melbourne papers to the 4th inst., and find in the Atyus of that date an article on the recent postal arrangements via Suez, containing snch unjust reflections on the Panama route, aiid absurd propositions to further Victorian ends, that we feel bound not to allow it to pass unchallenged. After a little strong comment on the conduct of Messrs." M'Culloch and Verdon for the part they both took in the late Postal Conference, which is described as " blundering and preposterous," the writer remarks :—" Public opinion in this colony is entirely with the Postmaster-General in affirming that' the general interests both of the mother country and of the colonies, require that the services to Australia should be by way of Suez and King George's Sound.' No other line of mail communication is so punctual or •economical, and none is capable of placing us in possession of such late telegraphic news from Europe. The Panama route is virtually a failure. It has disappointed the expectations of its most ardent promoters in the colonies which lie to the eastward of it; it is uncertain and irregular; it is very costly ; and the terrible casualties to which mail steamers, in common with other vessels, are liable to in the Gulf of Mexico, add an element of great danger to the ordinary risks of the transit."

Now, with respect to the opinion of the Postmaster-General, we apprehend that Postmasters-General of the different colonies are certainly better judges of their respective wants than the Minister who takes only a Down-ing-street view of them, and however much this particular opinion may suit public views in Victoria, it certainly does not suit this colony. We are then told that "no other mail line is so punctual, or economical, and none is capable of placing us in possession of such late telegraphic news from Europe."

"With respect to punctuality, it is easy to produce the Argus's own assertion that the very contrary was the case, until the Panama Company made the. contractors for the Suez line do their work, and little doubt exists in the minds of many unbiassed persons that were the Panama route to be abolished to-morrow, the Peninsular -and Oriental Company would possibly return to their original careless system, and treat the Australian colonies with the same Oriental snubbing that for years we had to put up with, and through which, in 1866, this colonv had to pay demurrage to their subsidised steamers between Melbourne and Port Chalmers of upwards of £6OOO, and from which overbearing thraldi m we have to thank the Panama Company for relieving us. It is then added—"The Panama route is virtually a failure." This may he so in the eyes of our contemporary, hut we have reason to know that the scientific world, and those capable of giving reliable opinions on such matters, will not endorse this sweeping assertion. The avowal that it has disappointed its most ardent promoters is positively untrue ; for the performances of the ships and extent of traffic has surpassed the most sanguine ex-

pectations formed of it. The assertion that it is uncertain and irregular is easily refuted by the arrivals and departures since the service commenced, in June, 18G6, and also by the report of our Postmaster-General to his Excellency the Governor last session. That it is costly, there can be no doubt about; all such enterprises are, of necessity; but it will bear very favorable comparison with any similar service, especially the last astounding contract the Peninsular and Oriental Company have secured for twelve years.

As to the terrible casualties to which steamers are liable in the Gulf of Mexico, we hardly know what our contemporary means, seeing that the Panama route does not pass through it. If he means that the dangers by it are greater than those via Suez, he malces a great mistake. This is not mere assertion, but a matter of historv, and endorsed by those whose business it is to determine insurance rates. Just now the effe.ts of the late hurricane in the West Indies, and a few deaths by yellow fever, are fresh in the public mind, but there is nothing in these calamities to show that thev will ever occur again ; and we would remind the writer of the article that the route he so strongly advocates has for years been known to be liable to shipwrecks, as a long list of losses of Peninsular and Oriental Company's boats now before us unhappily shows, the route passing through far more perilous latitudes than that via Panama, whilst the distressing passage by the Bed Sea, and concomitant list of fevers, &c., conclusively proves, what is already well known, that it enjoys no immunity from sickness.

The writer next proceeds to inform us." that a fortnightly service is to be had for £184,000 per annum, and that in undertaking their share of the burden the co-operation of South Australia and Tasmania may be relied on, and intimates that should the colonies to the eastward refuse to join, the Duke of Montrose and the Government of Victoria will coerce them to to do so, by levying a prohibitory rate of postage, but that seeing that the Home Government, has sealed the fate of both the Panama and Torres Strait lines by refusing to contribute to their maintenance, the inhabitants of New South Wales, Queensland, and New Zealand will have no alternative but to succumb to this kind of dictation. our contemporary really believes this, we fear he has calculated without his host, and will find himself highly disappointed. Theline via Panama is an establised fact, its_ importance politically and commercially cannot be exaggerated, it provides separate and distinct communication with the mother country, and insures prompt and regular intercourse with the Western Hemisphere, and, seeing that a telegraphic cable may already be laid from Cuba to Colon, the communication by that means is of equal importance to that via Suez. But let us for a moment probe the real animus that suggested the article, and it simply amounts to this. Victoria, whose policy of late has been of 'he most grasping and narrow-minded character, wants everything—protection for what she does not care to import, such, and only such, postal services as suits her interests, and above all, the headquarters of the Peninsular and Oriental Company to assist her in her recent pet scheme of making Melbourne a great naval arsenal, to which end she has got Mr. Bull to contribute a useless chree-decker, and now endeavors to force the governments of the colonies eastward of her to violate their public engagements to aid her in a policy at once retrospective and illiberal.

We opine the day is very distant when the Argus will be able to congratulate its English and Colonial readers on the desired alternate "Wednesday's English mail leaving Hobson's Bay; and when they do get it, it will not he at the expense of their neighbors or the Panama route.