The Sun.
London, England, 1856-06-26 00:00:00

STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH
AUSTRALIA.

Mr. Wilson, it is expected, will this evening announce to
Parliament the successful tender for the conveyance of the
mails to and from the Australian colonies via Suez. Some
disappointment has been expressed that a trial of the
Panama route has not been made. In course of time, we
feel personally convinced that this would be one of the
mail's routes, but, for the sake of the Australian colonies
and the Australian interests generally, we could wish that
it were at once made a preferential line. Mr. W. H.
Baylee, late Mayor of Geelong, colony of Victoria, strongly
advocates the route. He observes—" Painfully impressed,
both as a private individual and as recently the chief
magistrate of a colonial community deeply interested in the
subject, with the conviction that little practical consider-
ation has been given by the Imperial Government to
the Australian steam question, I venture to offer the re-
sults of my own experience of the comparative advantages
of the only two routes that can really occupy the attention
of competent judges, viz., Suez and Panama. Lately
arrived from Port Philip, after a residence of eighteen
years, I learn with surprise, which I well know will be
shared by those I have left behind me, that the Treasury
has decided upon the former. The reasons for this pre-
ference I am at a loss to discover, the advantages being, to
all qualified eyes, so clearly in favour of the latter, as I
hope very briefly to render apparent to your readers who
may not have considered the matter. I made the voyage
from Melbourne to Valparaiso in a sailing vessel, from the
latter port to Panama in a steamer, thence across the
Isthmus by the railway, and from Aspinwall to South-
ampton by the West India Mail packet. My railway trip
convinced me of the fallacy (now happily exploded, I re-
joice to hear) of all opposition on the score of insalubrity.
Not only did neither myself nor any one of some hundreds
of fellow-passengers experience the slightest ill effects, but
I was assured by a medical gentleman that the Isthmus is
now so healthy that the services of his profession are sel-
dom in requisition. So far as I can possibly ascertain
from inquiry or observation, no person who has ever made
the Anglo-Australian journey home or out by way
of the Pacific, would dream of attempting it by the Indian
Ocean if there were on the former waters that reasonable
certainty as to arrival and departure which steam would
afford. And for very obvious reasons. Sailing on the
Pacific, particularly between Panama and Now Zealand,
which important colony, be it borne in mind, can only be
directly served postally by way of the Isthmus, is like
sailing on a mill pond. Calms are the only impediment to
spend, or rather to punctuality. Hence the one thing
needful to the greatest uniform rapidity and consequent
punctuality is screw steamers on the Pacific; but judi-
ciously managed, and not with such crude Quixotism as
justly discredited the American experiment by the Golden
Age, made under most disastrous circumstances, in the
fever of the nugget mania, with provisions, fuel, wages,
and every incidental expense at rates that would
prevent any imaginable traffic from leaving a dividend
on the capital employed. All that is now wholly altered,
and the example cited becomes merely a warning of igno-
rant rashness to be avoided, instead of a precedent of pru-
dent boldness to be repeated. Very different is the case as
regards the tempestuous Indian Ocean, with the run
(dreaded by underwriters) along the stormy Cape Lesuwin.
saying nothing of frequent transshipments. These must
ever render Suez alike expensive and inconvenient to pas-
sengers, wholly impracticable for heavy merchandise, and
even unsuitable for the enormously bulky mails which
Australia now requires, including newspapers and Parlia-
mentary publications ; while, moreover, considering what
we colonists will be forced to pay, and what we
would willingly pay for proper acccommodation, we
have a right to insist on the full benefit of the
book-post being included in this service. Austra-
Haus are peculiarly sensitive to a first false step in this
direction now. Eager as they are for the rapid receipt and
despatch of their letters, and knowing that the Panama
route would give them that desideratum, they know also
that it would give another, scarcely less important, which
Suez will not—viz., a direct, expeditious, and (because of
the postal subsidy) reasonably economic means of their two
great staples, bullion and wool, reaching the home market.
Australians read with astonishment in the American papers
of coals, lighthouses, guano, arc., making nearly the whole
circuit of the United States frontier, from Maine to Ore
gon, across Panama, of course at a profit to those engaged
in the transport. Why do not the British public—
if the British Government will not—act upon so sug-
gestive an example ? Already about one-half the
whole distance—namely, from Southampton to Aspinwall
—is traversed by the Atrato, La Plata, and the rest of the
magnificent paddles of the Royal West Indian Mail Com-
pany. Why is not that company empowered to complete
the other moiety of the undertaking, and so bring Mel-
bourne and Sydney within 50 days of London, New Zea-
land thereby participating in such celerity ? Sooner or
later this will have to be done, for in no other way can
the objects of the colonists be attained. Why it is not
done at once, why the British public do not insist on its
being done, or at least on knowing the real reason for its
not being done, is a mystery, the elucidation of which is
desired with exceeding anxiousness by many thousands of
English subjects at the antipodes."—Morning Chronicle
City Article.