The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-12 00:00:00

STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH INDIA

The Select Committee appointed to inquire into the
existing steam communications with India and China,
and into the practicability of affecting any improve-
ment therein, and also into the best mode of estab-
lishing steam communications between England,
India, China, Australia, New Zealand, or any of
them, as well as any points upon the several routes
between them, and who were empowered to report
their observations, together with the minutes of evi-
dence taken before them from time to time to the
House, have considered the matters to them referred,
and have agreed to their first report, as follows :
Your Committee, in considering the best mode of
carrying out the inquiry submitted to them by your
Honourable House, were led to believe that it would
give the most general satisfaction to enter—first,
upon the question of the different routes by which it
has been proposed to connect, by means of steam com-
munication, the Australian colonies with the mother
country, in order to come, at as early a period as. pos-
sible, to some definite conclusion as to the respective
merits of these lines; leaving for subsequent consi-
deration the other matters included in the order of re-
ference.

Your Committee have adopted this course, believ-
ing that the information furnished by the witnesses
who have appeared before them may materially facili-
tate the efforts of the Government in making the ar-
rangements necessary for effecting that important
communication.

With this object, your Committee have examined
witnesses of different views, and representing various

interests.
They first called 'for evidence from persons con-
nected with, and long resident in, the colonies of
Australia, who, they have a right to believe, were
acquainted with the wants and wishes of the colo-
nists, and others whose commercial transactions with
the colonies, and whose knowledge of imperial con-
siderations involved in the question, rendered their
opinions of value.
They have likewise taken the evidence of officers in
her Majesty's naval service, as well as commanders
and owners of vessels in the mercantile marine, who
have practical acquaintance with the navigation of
the seas proposed to be traversed by the vessels of the
companies tendering for the different routes.
Without entering at length into scientific details as
regards the comparative merits of the screw and pad-
dle, when applied to steamers intended for ocean voy-
ages, your Committee were of opinion that as two
of the lines for which tenders have been sent in pro-
posed to effect the communication by means of auxi-
liary screw steamers, it was their duty to take the
evidence of practical men, as to the probability that
vessels so propelled would be able, under all circum-
stances, to perform with sufficient punctuality the
services for which they were tendered.
The question, it appears to your Committee, in-
volves the following considerations :-
1. Expedition, certainty, and extent of postal com-
munication.

2. Expedition, accommodation, and economy, in
the conveyance of passengers.
3. Facility, accommodation, and cheapness, with
reference to the peculiar kind of merchandise passing
between England and Australia.

4. That the line or lines selected should be as free
as possible from those political objections which ne-
cessarily attach to a line dependent on other countries
for its communications.

There are three routes proposed by which this com-
munication may be established :-
1. The Panama route—a line of auxiliary screw
steamers by the Pacific Steam Packet Company, in
connexion with the• West India Royal Mail Steam
Packet Company, from a channel port to Chagres,. or
Navy Bay, in the Gulf of Mexico, across the Isthmus
of Panama, by means of a railway—as described to be
in process of construction by an American company
—and thence from Panama, vid Tahiti and New Zea-
land to Sydney.
'2. The Cape route—a line of auxiliary screw
steamers from a channel' port round the Cape of
Good. Hope, either by an extension of the existing line
to the Cape, or a separate line throughout, not touch-
ing, on the outward passage, at that colony, but call-
ing off Port Philip, making Sydney the terminus, and
from the former port it is contemplated to run branch
steamers to swan River, Van Diemen's Land, and
New Zealand.

3. The Indian Route—A line following the pre•
sent overland mail route, from a channel port via
Alexandria, Suez, Aden, to Point de Galle :—From
Point de Galle there are three proposed modes of
reaching Australia :
Ist., From Point de Galle to Singapore, and then
via Torres Straits to Sydney.
2d. From Point de Gallo direct to the west coast of
Australia, reaching Sydney via S wan River and Port
Phillip.

3d. From Point de Galle to Singapore, and then via
the Straits of Sunda, Batavia, Swan River, and Ade-
laide, to Sydney.
It is in evidence before your Committee that the
average number of days now occupied in the voyage
from England to Sydney by the Cape of Good Hope
is 119, and from Sydney to England 138 ; and upon
this basis the course of post between England and
Australia may be stated at present at not less than
257 days, or eight months.
The pacific Steam Packet Company proposed to
perform the distance from England to Sydney, by
the Panama line, in screw-steamers of 1,000 tons,
and 200 horse power, in 62 days and some hours, at
an average rate of 9 knots the hour ; and allowing,
as they propose, eight days at Sydney for the reply
to letters, the current of post would be reduced to
133 days.

The General Screw Steam Navigation Company
proposed to perform the service from England to
Sydney, by the Cape route, in auxiliary screw-
steamers of 1,400 or 1,700 tons, with 250 or 300.
horse power, at an average rate of 8f knots the hour;
they engaged to perform the outward passage in 64
days, and the homeward in 68 ; and allowing, as
they propose, three days for the rwly to letters, the
course of post by this line would be reduced to 135
days. _

The projected Eastern Steam Navigation Company,
proposed to perform the service vii Trieste and Sin-
gapore in 53 days, in paddle steamers of 1,200 tons
burden, with 400 horse power, and allowing three
days for the reply to letters at Sydney, it would re-
duce the course of post to 109 days.
The Peninsular and Oriental Company stated their
readiness to undertake the service via Marseilles,
Alexandria, and Singapore, but without mentioning
the class of vessels they propose to employ. The
service, as in the offer of the former company, to be
performed at the rate of 101 knots the hour; the out-
ward passage to be made in 52 days, and the home-
ward in 55 ; allowing, according to their proposal,
five days for the reply to letters, the current of post
would be reduced to 112 days.
It is proper to remark, in reference to the expecta-
tions held out by the two last companies, as to the
time in which this communication may be maintained,
that in order to effect the object proposed, the speed
must be greatly increased beyond the rates stipulated
for in the existing contract with the Peninsular and
Oriental Company.
In reference to the nautical questions which came
before your Committee, and upon which they called
for the opinions of practical seamen, they were
anxious to elicit facts relative to the navigation of
Torres Straits, the navigation of the Australian coast
in the region of Cape Leeuwin, and the practicability
of performing with regularity the homeward voyage
from Sydney to the Cape of Good Hope in vessels to
which the auxiliary screw propeller is proposed to be
applied.
As regards the first of these, your Committee have
had in evidence from several eminent naval officers,
who are practically conversant with the navigation of
Torres Straits and the neighbouring seas, that
dangers and difficulties abound ; and although the
admirable surveys of the scientific officers, employed
under the direction of the Admiralty, have done much
to render that passage less hazardous than formerly,
your Committee, nevertheless, do not feel justified in
recommending it as a regular route for steam-vessels
carrying mails, passengers, and cargo, running day
and night, and bound under heavy penalties to per-
form the service in a given time.
With reference to the navigation of the seas in the
vicinity of Cape Leeuwin, it does not appear to your
Committee, from the evidence laid before them, that
the difficulties, owing to the severe gales said to pre-
vail for many months of the year in that region, are
more severe than those encountered about the same
latitudes in other parts of the world, or that they are
such as a well• found steam-vessel of adequate tonnage
and power may not successfully contend against.
This observation applies more especially to the
return voyage from Sydney tea Cape Leuwin ; the
practicability of which, at certain periods of the year,
with adequate regularity, some of the witnesses have
questioned.
With reference to the application of the screw pro-
peller to steamers intended for ocean voyages, there
seems to be a general opinion that either as an auxi-
liary or principal motive power, it has been emi-
nently successful ; and that when used as an auxi-
liary, it is singularly well adapted for ves-els com-
bining the carriage of mails, passengers and cargo on
long voyages; while at the same 'time it is the most