STEAM POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XV, Issue 1326, 23 February 1859, Page 3

STEAM POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS.

The present route of the steamers, under contract with the Admiralty, for the conveyance of the European Mails from and to Australia, has oxcited universal dissatisfaction, and a strung effort has been making in all the Provinces, excepting Nelson mid New Plymouth, to pet it altered. The General Government have been desirous of remedying- the injustice now done to Auckland and other Provinces, hut the Company (Pearson, Coleman, & C 0.,) have refused to necet'e to their proposals, except under nil additional aud heavy-bonus. The bonus of £24,000 a year now granted is already excessive, and any proportionate additional subsidy would be monstrous. The evil will, however, bring its own remedy, for uuless the Company change the present route, it will lind that passenger and goods traffic, on which they so largely depend, will fall very consideinlily below a paying estimate. On the firstestablishmentof the line, every Province hailed it with delight and all were desirous of lending it the utmost help, but the continued adherence to a route, nlike inconvenient to the public and unrcmiincralive to the Company, has tended to nlienato much of the goodwill which was previously entertained. The Auckland merchants, at a recent large and influential meeting passed the following resolution :—

'Hint in iho opinion of this meeting a total tlisrogard to the interests of this Province hns been shown

by the Agent of the General Government, in advising tbe Mail route Iniil down imhe Contract entered into liy the f.orde of the Adinirality with Messrs. Henrson, Colemann, & Co., and imiil that route is changed thin Province will be mmmerciully injured instead ol hunefiited.

The '• total disregard," here alluded to, is as follows. Tlie steamer leaves Sydney on receipt of tlie mails and proceeds to Nelson, lands tlie Southern mails mid tlien takes her departure forTaranaki and Manakau—this latter port being on tlie western coast .The Northern mail is conveyed overland fromManakuu to Auckland ami two days only are allowed for delivering the outward mid receiving the homeward mails, when tlie .steamer returns to Taranaki and Nelson, and wails there from five to. seven days for tlie ariival of the Southern homeward mail. The stay of two days at Auckland might be increased t<j five or six without any inconvenience to the steamers, and would give country settlers an opportunity of replying, which they cannot do under the present arrangements. Thu uselessness of the steamed for poods traffic is apparent, fur not only dnos she never enter Auckland harbour, but even if the expense of cartage between that port and Manakau is incurred, there is a much larger rate of insurance charged on aceouiHof the route being via Taratiaki and Nelson. As the present subsidy only pruvides for the employment of two vessels ;one between Australia, Nelson, Taranaki, and Mnmikau, and the other between Nelson, Wellington, Canlerbiirj , , and Otago—the Southern Provinces, while admitting the injustice done to Auckland, are in self defence obliged to protest against its being remedied unless by the employment of an additional vessel. The Company have two boats laid up in reserve, and the following plan suggested by the Auckland press finds p:etty general favour:—" Two boats to be employed between Australia and New Zealand. The one would leave Melbourne for Nelson and Wellington, with the Southern mails, from which latter puit a branch steamer would convey those for Canterbury and Otago ; the trunk steamer in the meanwhile would go on to Hawkes Bay and Auckland, and receiving the Northern homeward mails, tuke her departure for Sydney. The other steamer would have left Sydney for Auckland direct, at the same time as the one first mentioned fioin Melbourne, and delivering the Northern mail would take up the homeward mails, at ITawkcsjßay. Wellington, (to which port the branch steamer to Canterbury and Otago would have returned) and Nelson, and then proceed to Melhourue.

•We carefully guard ourselves from cotnmiting this Province to this plan, because we are nut yet aware of the arrangements which Otago has made on her own account. We know that she has two steamers of her own running be tween that port and Melbourne, and we have one. It appears highly piohable that by a little management an arrangement more effective and less expensive misrUt thereby be entered into, between these tw-i Provinces and Canterbury. It is idle to talkabotitthe necessity of the scheme being a Geneial Government one in which Provincial boats might net to be employed. The Provinces have been forced into providing steamers for their own use, and cannot reasonably be expected to abandon the advantages which they find them to produce. New 'Plymouth has also to be provided far ; but as no alteration can he made until after a leference to England, : we see no necessity for discussing the matter further, until thetimejfor action arrives. The circumstances to be considered maybe as different'six. months hence as they were six months ago.

We would only'allude,-in passing, to the annoyance to which our Nelson friends have been unintentionally put. There are only two mails made up in London for New Zealand, one of these is addressed to the Postmaster at Auckland containing the letters, &c, for Auckland and New Plymouth ; the other is addressed to the Postmaster at Wellington, and contains the letters &c, for Nelson, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago. For the last two years Wellington has, at its own cost, subsidised sailing packets frnm Melbourne, and the letters for the other Provinces, after hnving been sorted, have been forwarded as occasion offered. The same plan is still pursued now that the Boomerang steiimer is substituted for the sailing packets, and Nelson* has bad the mortification of seeing the contract steamer arrive, several times from Sydney, with only the Northern mail. While we admit the inconvenience, we have also endeavoured to remedy it. by long since requesting that separate mails may be made up in London for each of the Provinces. An arrangement of this kind will shortly be carried into effect, when the present inconvenience will be remedied. So far as the other Southern Provinces are concerned it has proved a gain, since they have neverreceived their mails later than they would have done by the Coleman contract steamer, but sometimes earlier.

In itsannoyauce, while suffering from the delay in its mail, the Nelson Examiner has lately, on several occasions, abused, in no measured terms, the Postmaster-General of Victoria for-forward-ing the Southern mails to Wellington, per Boomerang, instead of sending them on to Sydney—the said mails being in fact the one, which though containing the letteis fnr all the Provinces, is addressed to the Postmaster of Wellington. The false impression thnscreatedbythe&V aminer has been circulated by the Press in other Provinces, and Dr. Evans and the Superintendent of Wellington ma)', perhaps, be elsewhere looked upon as setting up their united authority against that of the General Government, in order to confer a pieferenoe on this Province to which she is not entitled.

We are glad that the correspondence reprinted helow, has been p'iMished in a Wellington Government Gazette, as it clearly exonerates Drs. Evans and Featherslon, In showiug that, so fat from running counter to the instructions of the General Government, they have really dove all in their power to carry them out.

General Pout Office, Melbourne, Ist December, 1858

Sin, —I am directed by tH» Honorable the Pnst-mnster-Genernl, to transmit for your information, Ihe aciiompyinp; copy of a communication received from the Honorable the Colonial S°cretr«iy, Auckland, witli reference to the disposal of Mails from Great Britain, for'plnres in New Zealand, that may arrive at this port; and I have the honor to inform you that instructions have been issued in accordance therewith. I have, &c,, &c, WrtLIAH TuBHBK, Secretary. His Honor tho Superintendent, &>'., &c, &c, Wellington, New Zealand.

(enclosure.) Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, Ist November, 1858. Sin,—Keferring lo previous correspondence on tills subject j I have the honor to request that ftll Mails arriving from (3 rent Britain for pluses in Now Zealand, may lie forwarded to Sydney, tliouce to bo conveyed to their destination by the vessels of tlio New Zenlnnd Stcnm Mail Company, except such as may be addressed (o the Postmaster,- Wellington,

which it is requeued, may, until further notice, coutiuue lo be forwarded as heretofore. I have, &c., &o. E. \V. SririanD. The Honorable the Postrnjutcr-Gmieral, Melbourne, Victoria. ' ' The While Swan, is no\V taken up permanently by the General Government, and will continue to make a monthly round of the Provinces. Her route will embrace the VVest coast, making Auckland her port of departure and calling at Hawkes Bay on her way to Wellington. Both the former and latter Provinces, will ihus be brought into direct steam communication with Napier, an advantage not to be overrated by the New Province of Hawkes Bay. ', The Wontja. Wnnga. steamer, belonging to Wellington, continues to ply regularly between Waugiinui, Wellington and Hawkes Bay, and last week made an experimental trip to the Manawatu. She proceeded itp that river twenty? seven miles, -but unfortunately grounded on a spit '.coming, out. After a couple of tides she was got off having sustained-no damage. This trip is fraught with the'inost beneficial reFiitts for the future, the Manawatu district befoig unquestionably one of the finest in this neighbourhood.

The Lord Ashley treated the Wellington folk tv an excursion to Queen Charlotte's Sound on the ]2th ult. Upwards of three hundred persons availed themselves of the opportunity and had a long'day uf it. The Ashley started at SJ-30, a.m., and after crossing Cooks' Strait steamed about twenty-five miles up theSoUhd to the small township of Cromwell or Waitohi The passengers did not land, but the vessel made the best of her way back again, reaching Wellington at 2 o'clock the next morning. In consequence of a misunderstanding between the Company and the watermen, the public.Jiad to pay the usual fare for embarking and liiiiding after they had been led to expect a reduction ; to allay the iiritation thus caused, the Company handsomely subscribed £20 to a public charity. Thk Panama Route—We have been anxiously looking every month for particulars of the tenders, expected to he issued by the Imperial Government, in connexion with the Pa'J-jma Route. Our hopes of its speedy establishment were, however, recently damped by hearing that Mr. Sewell had arrived in Australia with some proposals fur consideration—the mere fact of fui'tlies' consideration beinj necessary, proving that there was a hitch somewhere; and stiii more recently we have learned that nothing will be done in England until answers are received, from Sydney, to despatches recently sent there by the November mail.

Th« fielrfy has shown us the greater probability there is of Wellington being selected as the post of arrivalaiiddepai'tureinN Z. The distances officially published by Mr. Sewell show that , no loss of time would thereby be sustained, and that if Melbourne and Sydney ate to bear each a portion of the subsidy, tiie Wellington route is the only one that will reconcile them. The plan is" now highly approved, in official circles, of running branch steamers from hence to and from Melbourne, the trunk steamer proceediiig to Sydney. A better harbour could not possibly be chosen. It is easy of access a all times, roiiiarkably free from danger, land locked and protected in ail winds, marked by the only lighthouse in the colony, and with tbe'probability of a deep water wharf for vessels of the largest tonnage to run alongside, must present advantages second to none other.