STEAM COMMUNICATION via PANAMA.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1885, 23 June 1863, Page 3

STEAM COMMUNICATION via PANAMA.

Mr Edward Hamilton's elaborate minute* on this subject, lately submitted to Mr Gladstone will repay perusal. He divided the subject into several parts, the most important of which is the Ist, viz:-—" That the Australian colonies are, by the extent of their trade, entitled to greater ocean postal facilities than they at present enjoy, and that the estab lishment of a service via Panama is indispensable to New Zealand."

On this point he makes the following statement: — " In 1860 the value of the exports and imports of the Australian colonies and New Zealand, was nearly £49,000,000 sterling, of which the sum of £29,000,000 was the value of their trade with the United Kingdom, (vide statistical table relating to the colonies, part VII.) These figures include no export of gold from New Zealand, which dm-ing the sixteen months ending November, 1862, amounted to £2,000,000 sterling, and as this export must at the'lowest computation have been balanced by a corresponding import of the same amount, the whole of the trade of the Australian colonies and New Zealand for ifae year 1862, may be estimated at £53,000,000 sterling, and their trade with the United Kingdom at £32,000,000 sterling. "The postal requirements incidental to a trade of so much magnitude, and such expansive buoyancy, must necessarily be large, and considering the remote and isolated position of these colonies, it would be surprising if the cost of maintaining even an inadequate postal service, such as the present, were very heavy ; but the fact is that it is not so, and this arises from the circumstance that the Indian service is available for more than half the distance. What the precise amount of it is, there is some difficulty in determining, for the last report of the PostmasterGeneial (the Bth) omits from the list of foreign and colonial services (pp. 34 and 35) the subsidies paid for the branch services to South Australia, Tasmania, aud Ne\v Zealand. It may, however, be safely assumed that the gross payment by the Treasury does not exceed £90,000 a-year ; for the half of the whole subsidy paid for the main line is £67,336, the special payment by the Treasury on account of New Zealand is £13,000 (this amount is furnished by Mr Orosbie Ward), and the special payments on account of South Australia aud Tasmania are estimated at £9,664, making together £90,000, which is considerably less than onetenth of the total amount of the subsidies paid by the Treasury on account 'of foreign and colonial postal services. On reference to the eighth report of the Postmaster-General, it will be found that in the year 1861 there were ten different packet services. 01 these, seven were supported exclusively by the Treasury ; the cost of two, viz. — the Indian and Australian, was divided equally between the Treasury and the Governments of these dependencies; and as to the tenth, viz., that to the Cape, the Colonial Government only contributed £6000 out of a total charge of £33,000. Of the seven services exclusively supported by the Treasury, it is only uecessary to allude to two.

£177,000 a year is paid to the Cunard Company for a weekly service to the United States, and £270,000 a year is paid to the Royal Mail Company, for a fortnightly service ending at the Isthmus of Panama, and a mouthly service to Brazil and the River Plate; and in both 1 these cases the trade for the requirements and developement of which these heavy postal subsidies are paid, is substantially a trade with foreign countries, which, collectively, do not consume a larger amount of British manufactures than the Australian colonies and New Zealand. The fact thac these heavy charges are incurred by the Treasury in the interests of trade with foreign countries is most important, for it shows that postal subsidies are not favors arising out of the intimate relations between the mother country and its dependencies, but that they are acknowledged to be essential parts of the machinery by which the general commercial progress of the United Kingdom is maintained ; in fact, a reproductive expenditure, or a price paid for increased returns.

With these precedents, it seems unnecessary to urge further that the establishment of a fortnightly postal service with Australia is due to the magnitude, and essential to the developement of the trade between that country aad the United Kingdom ; but it may. be observed that it is also necessary as the only means of reducing within moderate limits the consequences of accident and interruption to the service. In the month of December last, the steamer Colombo, carrying the Australian mails, was wrecked on one of the Laccadive Islands, and the mails were not fully delivered for more tbaa a month after time. The remittances and drafts forwarded by this mail were probably not less than £3,000,000, and as these are not only the means of paying existing obligations, but form the basis of new contracts even before maturity, the loss to the trade of the United Kingdom was, owing to the mails being despatched only once a month, a .suspension of payment of this large amount for fifteen days, and a delay of an equal amount of fresh transactions for the same period. A question then arises as to the route of the second service, and this appears to be conclusively settled by the geographical position of New Zealand. The imports and exports of that colony already exceed £6,000,000 sterling, and it would be difficult to prove ibat the injury done to any of the' Australian coloaies by selecting the Panama route, would be comparable to that which New Zealand would i sustain by establishing the, second, semce on

he Suez line* ; for the course of post, via Suez, between this country and New Zealaud is five months; whereas, by the Panama route, New Zealand would gain a month, and the principal Australian colonies would lose nothing. It may be further observed, that it is most » desirable to run a furrow across the Pacific, as the first step towards the reclamation and settlement of the fertile islands with whicb it abounds, and as a means of connecting the Australian colonies and New Zealand with NortU and South America, between which countries it is certain that greater postal facilities would create a large commercial and social intercourse.