THE NEW ZEALAND ROYAL MAIL STEAM-COMPANY.

Wellington Independent, Volume X, Issue 1314, 29 September 1858, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE NEW ZEALAND ROYAL MAIL STEAM-COMPANY.

Such, we understand, is to be the title of the Company on which our eyes have beea so long and anxiously bent, and which there is, happily, a speedy prospect of .seeing in beneficial operation in our midst. /

Mr. Coleman, ot the firm of Coleman, Pearson and Co., has arrived in Auckland, per Moa, in order to the determining the course and other arrangements of this new and moat important line, and upon the judicious organization of which so much, if'■not the whole, success of the measure may be said to depend. Of the vessels by which the inter-proviuoial and ; inter-colonial communication is to be carvied on, we think we may safely pronounce a very satisfactory opinion. They are fourin number, all iron built, and all fitted wUh the newest improvements. Taking them, in the order of their departure from England, we are happy to be enabled togive our readers a copy of their true character; and that from a source which never favours or flatters, viz.,— Lloyd's Shipping List. '

; According to that standard anthority, we find that the Lord Ashley is. a vessel of .422 tons measurement, inclusive of engine room, coal bunkers, &c, with a carrying capacity of 287 jOns, and of 80 horse power. She was built at

Hull in 1857, with four iron bulkheads, and is classed Aγ for uiue yetirs. ..•■■■• Tue sistor ship, the Lord Won ley, was also built at Hull.'iii the same-year, and is of precisely similar construction. She is of like horse power, but is a trifle smaller iutouuage.her total measurement being 414 tous, her carrying capacity 282 tons.-She is reputedto have the heels of the other. . Tlio Airedale is of 345 tons measurement, 2G9 tons capacity, and 60-h.orae power. Sbo was built at Stockton in 1857, is divided by four iron bulkheads, and is classed Al for nine years. The last and largest of the New Zealand Royal Mail squadron is the Prince Alfred. This ( fine ship originally called the Prince Oscar, was j built in the same year (1854) and by the same • constructors as our old Aucklaud steamer the "l William Denny.. She is of 919 tons measureraent, engine room included, with a capacity of 548 tons, is divided, by six iron bulkheads, barque rigged, and classed Al for six years. Of her horse power Lloyds'is silent; but she was built for Messrs. Enequis of Wisby, the capital of the. island of Gottland in the Baltic, a city renowned in former times for the commercial usages of its merchants, which were celebrated as the Wisby. Ordinances. Between Wisby and Westerrick" and Stockholm au active intercourse by steam is maintained, and in that it is to be presumed, the Prince Oscar, now the Prince Alfred, was originally employed. We hear from Mr. Colemau that her departure from England was likely to have taken place towards the latter end of last uiouth. • ' ■ Since learning that the ships left England with their screw propellers in their we are not so sanguine, as our contemporaries appear to be, of the immediate arrival of the, Lords Ashley and Worslei/; nor can we'credit that ships of 287 and 282 tons capacity respectively, with large and bulky, cargoes, and crowded with passengers, can have one-quarter part of the coal which the Southern Cross reports them to hate'shipped. Indeed, we hare been informed that they had but a limited supply of fuel, to be used, if necessary, in driving them through the horse latitudes, or enabling them to steam into port. ; And we think it but proper tt» state this, because we incline'to the supposition that; with their three-bladed screws in position (revolve as i they may), be the sailing qualities of these ships , what they may, that their; progress will be very - materially impeded, and their passages propor- j tionately protracted. ( ■; Come when they may, they will be certain to j meet with a hearty welcome, aud we trust that < such a line of communication; may be adopted i as shall alike conduce to the general benefit of r New Zealand and the prosperity of the Com { pany which has undertaken to cement its ] interests and develops and' extend its-resources. c We cannot perceive, if the inter-colonial £ trade is to be productive of the ; large amount of j passenger traffic which is anticipated to take c place, that there is anything so inconveniently ; large iii the proportions of the Prince Alfred a as to imperil the safe working of the contract. ( When the William Denny was running—a 'j vessel fully one third larger than either the „ Lord Ashley or Worsley —it was no infrequent \ thing to hear complaints of her want of suffi- j. oieuey of accommodation. Now, as the Denny \, ran single-handed, aud without any concerted {, means of intor-provirieial communication to ; back her—as she was, moreover, never remark- ] able- for speud—surely, after a lapse of two \ years, and with the means of concert and. j combination in their hands, a vessel of 548 , tons capacity can scarcely be considered too " magnificent" for the present and prospective j requirements of the inter-colonial cornmunica- ] tions of New Zealand ? f It would be futile to speculate on the manner ] and course by which this inter-colonial and i inter-provi'icial chain of steam communication , is to be worked. On the 10th of July, upon ( what we considered to be unquestionable au- ( tboiity, we gave an outline of the circuit that was then said to be the one decided on. We are of opinion that that was in every respect the most unexceptionable and the most commercial that could by any possibility be adopted. It is now rumoured that that is not to be the route; but that the termini—the. ports of ' arrival and departure—are to be Melbourne ! and Nelson, arid that Sydney and Auckland ate ' bo but subsidiary ports. If this be so—looking ' at the New Zealand trade with Sydney as it ' exists, and at that of Melbourne which has yet ! to be created —we should be apt to riew with much misgiving the result of such an untoward

experiment.— lbid,