The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-03-02 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES.---LIVERPOOL, MONDAY.

daily increasing diminution of that great source
of food for the population.

I am informed that tho Government has resolved
not to grant a concession for the establishment of
Transatlantic steam packets until the month of
June next, and that the grant for such a company
will not be inscribed in the budget until next year.

Armonia, the " Libertini " are most unfortunate in
making him the subject of a historical pageant, be-
cause the annals of his life prove that a good Prince
should defend the Church, and depend upon the
Pope, and respect cauons of the Church, and
fear its censure, and that the Princes of the House
of Savoy were the most catholic of Princes.
These remarks of the Armenia in no way influenced
the proceedings of the last three days apparently,
though if they had the effect of suppressing
the procession of the Conte Verde (with which
the amusements of Sunday began) and throwing
the money raised for it into another channel, it
would have been a decided gain to the public,
for the pageant itself was a very heavy affair,
though commercially, I dare say, it answered its
object, as it looked imposing in the programme,
and thereby brought a number of persons together,
but it was unavoidably too much of a theatrical
display, with the audience all behind the scenes, to
give great satisfaction. This rather dull business
ended, however, the more enlivening scene of the
Corso commenced, and here it seems first to have
burst upon the good people of Turin that they Os-
sessed a turn for the comic which has hitherto
lain most unprofitably dormant. ‘` Corso" is
only a convertible term for what is in London tech-
nically called a " park," I believe, but on this
occasion it was varied by fancy dresses and mas-
querading, and on Sunday by some timid attempts
at confetti throwing. The most conspicuous of the
characters were a troop of Pierrots on horseback
and a troop or gown of Bedouin Arabs. The latter
were particularly well mounted and well appointed.
and performed a very creditable fantasia in the
square of the castle, where the King and royal
family were spectators from the royal armoury.
Both parties were said to be composed of per-
sons socially belonging to the equestrian order,
and they certainly deserve most of the credit of
having put the Carnival on horseback in Turin.

AUSTRALIA.

By the arrival of the Maid ofJudah, off Plymouttll

we are in receipt of Sydney advices to an; 27th of
November. The Maid of Judah brings 6.000 ozs
of and a large quantity of Colonial produce.
Her majesty's ships Ismo and Herald were at
Sydney. The Vocalist was to leave for London
Nov. 80, Wooloomooloo Dec 10, Eller►borough and
Dunbar Dec. 20, and Nimroud early in January.
The Maid of Judah left Sydney Nov. 27, rounded
the Horn, Dec. 27, and crossed the Equator Jan.
25. She experienced strong and constant north
east winds from 30 degrees N. to the Channel.
The following vessels were signalled—Dec. 5, lat
44.5 S, lon 1.59 F, H.M.S. Electra, from Mel
bourne for England ; Jan 22, lat 40 S, lou 26 W,
Migrator, from London for Ceylon, and Bougers,
merchantman ; Feb. 7, lat 33 N, lon 46 W, Serino.,
and French barque Lucie ; Feb 12, let 37.10 N,
lon 41 SW, rounded the ship Rover's Bride, of St.
John, New Brunswick, timber laden, waterlogged,
and abandoned ; hull apparently in good order,
bulwarks carried away, deckhouse washed down,
mainhatches open, boats gone, and one anchor on
forecastle; topmast gone and foreyards in the
slings, main and mizen yards aloft, mainmast head
broken off by the rigging. This fine looking ship
had been but recently abandoned. There were no
barnacles or sea grass or any kind on the vessel ;
she is about 900 tons, and right in the track of
homeward bound vessels.

The political intelligence by this arrival does not
possess much importance. The papers are filled
with interminable debates in the Assembly on
questions of local concernment. The judges of New
South Wales were about having their salaries
increased by £5OO a year, a bill for that purpose
having passed the House by a majority of 27 to 15.
A message from his Excellency the Governor-
General had been received by the Assembly, pro-
posing to place on the Estimates the sum of £122,254
15s ld, such being the amount of the actual or
anticipated deficit of the revenue UD to the 31st
December, 1856. The Herald complains bittarly of
the loquacity of hon. members. It says :
The debates of Thursday evening, though of consider-
able importance, were unmercifully drawn out. It is really
a hardship that on every topic each member deems it
necessary to express the opinions of his party. The same
wearying sounds drop from the same inharmonious voice
—often like the dismal and dreary echoes which we
remember to have heard with horror outside the walls of
St. Luke's.

The Upper House had passed resolutions depre-
cating the revival of transportation, and denying
the right of the Queen to detach from New South
Wales any portion of the territory lying south of
the twenty-sixth degree of latitude except upon
petition of the resident inhabitants, some clauses
in Acts of Parliament having placed restrictions on
the Royal power in that respect.
The Gold fields Management Bill threatened to
meet with some opposition. Mr. Martin opposes
it because it follows the example set by Victoria,
and he expresses very great contempt for the
wisdom of the legislators of that colony. But the
diggers favour the bill, and it will probably be
carried. The gold produce of the colony averages
now generally about 5,000 ounces a week.

The clerical state stipendiaries, not content with
the £28,000 voted to them by the Constitutio❑ Act,
have had influence enough to get £ [4,000 more put
on to the Estimates for their salaries. This, of
course, has roused the voluntaries to action. The
State-aid Abolition Society had held a public meet-
ing, at wh eh Dr. Lang was the chief speaker, and
adopted a petition to the Assembly.
The commercial advices are of a satisfactory
chiracter. A fair business was doing in the Liver-
pool market at firm prices.

GOLD averaged 76s 6d per oz. The season was bad,
but the produce increasing. The total amount brought
by the western, southern, and northern escdrts from Jan.
1 to Nov. 22 was 109,511 OM.

Wool. was coming dow❑ slowly, in consequence of the
roads.

A great rise has taken place in the shares of the Bank
of New South Wales, and the New South Wales Marine
Assurance shares. The former have advanced R 5 or 25
per cent, and the latter £1 per share or 50 per cent on the
paid up capital,

ME AUSTRALIAN MAIL CONTRACT.

The following observations on the subject of the
recent Australian mail contract we extract from the
Sydney Morning Herald:—
That a new and previously almost unheard-of company
should have suddenly obtained possession of the Australian
mail contract, to the exclusion of those older companies
who have been contending for the monopoly of it for years
past, has naturally excited the indignation of those who find
themselves left in the lurch. The Liverpool people, proud
of the voyage of the Royal Charter, contend that the Cape
route is the route, and the only one that should be patron-
ised by her Majesty's bounty ; quite forgetful, however, of
the fact that one successful run cannot establish the char-
acter of a route, and that all previous experience had shown
the passage by the Cape to be very uncertain as to its
duration, and quite forgetful also of the feet that the Royal
Charter herself, though only fifty-nine days out from
Plymouth, was eighty nine days out from Liverpool, and
that the detention she experienced in the early part of
her voyage, was quite as conclusive a proof of her incom-
petency to make a uniformly and reliably quick voyage,
as her subsequent speed was of her capabilities under
favourable circumstances. It is to be expected, of course,
that the parties iuterested in the development of any
particular route should magnify its advantages and forget
its defects ; but it would have been throwing away the
benefits of all past experience to put faith in the Cape
route, which of all routes that have been hitherto tried
has proved the most t'eacherous. The screw clippers
that make that passage have their advantages in the
unbroken continuity of the journey, and the consequent
facility for freight and comfort for passengers that they
offer. But for speed and for a reliable regularity—and
these are the essential conditions of the mail service—'he
overland route has established an unquestionable supe.
riority. It would have created great and justifiable dis-
content both in England and Australia if, after all that is
past and gone, it had been announced that the Govern-
ment had once more handed over the mail service to the
tender mercies of screw steamers to run via the Cape.
The impossibility of commencing the service in less
than a twelvemonth was also in addition a sufficient
reason for the rejection of the offer. The Government
would not have been justified in postponing thdcomrnence.
ment of the service for so long for any merely economical
reasons. But though the Liverpool people and the G. S.
S. Company show themselves dissatisfied at the adoption
of the overland route, they are nothing like so sore on the
point as the Peninsular and Oriental Company, nor have
the same reason to be. The loss of the mail contract is
not in their case the loss of the trade altogether. Their
ships will still run, though unpatronised by the Postoffice.
There a sufficient prospect of adequate remuneration
for them apart from postal subsidies. But this is not the
case with the P. and 0. Company. To them the loss of
the contract is the Ibis of the Australian trade altogether,
as the overland service cannot be carried on without the
aid of a pcstal subsidy. There is not trade enough to
make it pay. And it would be a losing game to try and
run the new company off the line. It would be fighting
against very heavy odds, for the Peninsular and Oriental
Company, fortified, as they are by their existing position
and their established agencies, to compete for the mere
profits of trade with a company backed by so splendid
a subsidy as '185,000 a year. But it is impossible not
to see that the old company has the strongest inducements
to thwart, and, if possible, ruin the new contractors.
It is not merely the loss of the Australian trade that
they have to lament, but it is the admission of a
powerful rival into their waters. From Southampton
to Ceylon the course taken by the boats of the two com-
panies is identical. It only requires that the Australian
contractors should put on a branch boat from Ceylon to
Madras and Calcutta, and they can compete on equal
terms for the pick of the Indian trade. Hitherto the
Eastern trade has been a complete monopoly in the hands
of the P. and 0. Company, and, as is always the case
where there is a monopoly, the accommodation has not
always been up to the mark. The Indians, who have
often murmured their complaints, would not be sorry to
see a rival company enter the trade, and would support
it extensively with their patronage. The prospect of this
competition has evidently excited some consternation.at
122, Leadenhall street. The shareholders are beginning
to grumble, and the directors have thought it necessary to
issue an explanation, showing how it was the Australian
contract slipped- th_reugh their fingers, and replying to
the allegations made in the House of Commons by Mr.
Wilson, the Secretary to the Treasury, as to the reasons
why their tender was rejected. That the Peninsular and
Oriental Company could and would have efficiently per-
formed the service if they had obtained the contract, no
one doubted ; what they did they did well. But they
forfeited the sympathy of these colonies by the sudden and
unnecessary abandonment of the mail service, at a junc•
ture when its maintenance was especially desirable. It is
notorious that they could, if they had liked, have easily
maintained the postal service, and even increased it to a
monthly line, and that the excuse that their boats were
wanted for the transport service was a mere excuse.
But Australia's necessity was their opportunity. They
abandoned the mail service in order that they might re-
sume it again on more lucra•ive terms. Their offer was
.c 84,000 for a monthly mail from 9alle to Sydney, which

was a pretty considerable increase on their old bargain of
W 20,000 for a bi-monthly mail, and which the Admiralty
refused. When next they tendered the war was over,
h-)ats in abundance were ready for the service, and other
parties had their eyes opened to the splendid prospects of
the Australian trade. The company had lost its vantage
ground. It was no longer the only party competent to
carry out the service. A new association of capitalists
stepped in, and by more liberal offers secured the prize.
Mr. Howell, in his letter, intimates that the new con-
tractors will not be able to keep to the contract time. It
is possible that in the earlier voyages especially, some
allowance will have to be made for unavoidable delays ;
but there is at least this consolation, that if we do not get
the mails we do not pay for them. The contractors, how.-
ever, have the strongest inducements to fulfil rigidly the
engagement into which they have entered ; and as they
are practical men. and well versed in the details of steam
navigation, they are not 1 kely to fail if success is possible.
At any rate, we shall not long be in suspense as to what
they can do. The first boat is on its way, and in a few
weeks will be in Port Jackson. The first three months
of next year will show what can be done both on the
outward and homeward voyage.