The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1875-10-20
Australian Mail Service.

the colonies of New Zealand and New South
Wales jointly. She Is sent out in order to have
a vessel at Sydney, TO commence the service
\ on the 18th Of November-the date when the
contract of this Company begins. As before
stated, it will continue for eight years, with an
annual subsidy of s449,95O for thirteen trips,
/ leaving each terminus every twenty-eight days.
The new boats of the Company, OF which there
will be five, are not vet ready for the service,
which necessitates the temporary employment
Of three other vessels-the Vasco de CANA,
/ Colima and Mikado-which will bring the
mails leaving Sydney November 10th, De-
cember 18th and January l4th.-0n the return
Of the above vessels to San Francisco, they will
be superseded by the three new boats building
at Chester, Pennsylvania, and now nearly ready
for. service. A description Of these vessels
will be Of interest in this connection.
They are iron plated screw steamers of about
5000 tons burthen, resemble each other in
size and equipments, and are fitted with COM
pound engines, as well as all modern improve
ments. There are accommodations on each
for $50 saloon passengers, 81 second-class and
l2O steerage. They have been fitted up ex-
pressly for convenience of travellers across the
tropical belt of the Pacific, and are believed to
surpass any steamers Of their class that have
been seen in this ocean. The first of these
vessels, the City of San Francisco, sailed from
New York for San Francisco September goth;
the second, the City of New York, was to sail
from New York, for San Francisco Oct. 10Th;
and the third, City of Sydney, leaves New York
November 10th
A recent telegram from New York says, of
the first named of these vessels:
The new Pacific Mail steamship City of San Fran.
cisco cleared from New York for San Francisco on
the Goth September. The principal and novel facts
are, first, that she during her trial trip eleven
miles per hour, on a consumption of seventeen tons
OF coal per day, and sixteen miles per hour, on
twenty eight tons per day, economic result
before achieved; aud second, that her first cabin is
the most beautiful ever seen, being flushed with
ffIeen varieties OF polished hard wood They all
OF $500 tons, Custom House measurement, and $50
feet length water line; breadth, 40 feet; depth
from base line to spar deck, so eet and inches and
are supplied with two compound engines
Besides the three American ships named above
there are two British iron screw steamships, the
Zealandia and Nova Cambria, built expressly for
this service by Messrs John Elder * Co., the famous
Clyde ship builders, who constantly employ over
700 workmeu. These vessels register $3.50 tons,
British measurement about 1000 tons American) !
S15 feet 10 length, IS feet inches beam, aud %
feet and inches depth hold Each is fitted with |
one of the new style three-eyliuder compound en-
giues the high pressure cylinder having diameter
Of IS inches, with feet stroke, and the two low |
pressure cylinders having a diameter Of e. inches |
and feet stroke. sea speed OF II knots is guar
teed by the builders. The passenger accommoda. |
tions the same liberalscale in the American
ships-1SO saloon, co second class and IaO steersge
The dining saloon is OF ample dimensions GO feet by
., with l6 inch side ports, ard dome II feet 10
diameter These British ships promise to surpass, |
Tit be possible, the American vessels and together
they will make the feefest and most comfortable
passenger ships afoat. The Zsalandia will leave |
London December 10th for Sydney, to take her
place 10 the line, to be followed By the Nova Cam.
bria month later.
The price of passage through from San
Francisco to Sydney, or to Port Chalmers, in
New Zealand, a distance of 1900 miles, will be
5000 or fIO- the cheapest rate on any ocean
route of similar length in the world Passen-
gers viii be al lowed 10 stop at the Fijis, and
again at Honolulu; and can, if they choose,
remain over a month at each point. When
to these attractions is added the excursion in
palace cars across the American continent,
there can be no doubt that most of the travel
will pass over this route, which, even with the
inferior vessels thus far employed, has become
very popular with all who have been over it.
The route taken by these steamers, on leav-
ing San Francisco, viii be via Honolulu and
Kandavu, in the FIJI Group From Kandavu,
the service will fork-the mails, passengers,
and freight being transferred to branch
steamer, which goes to Auckland and Port
Chalmers, which is the terminus in South New
Zealand, while the through boat proceeds to
Sydney. On the return trip, the steamer which
leaves Port Chalmers each month will be the
vessel that goes through to San Francisco, the
mails, passengers, and freight from Sydney
being transferred to her at Kandavu from the
branch boat This forked service" as it is
called, has been found to be the only one which
satisfies all parties in the colonies, as it places
the people of Sydney and New Zealand on the
same footing
It's believed that when the new vessels now
building are placed on the route, which will
not be until after January next, there will be
large increase, not only in the number of
passengers, but in the trade between this port
and the colonies. With such vessels as those
we have described, and with the low fares and
increased speed it cannot be otherwise 1t is
expected that the London mails will then be
regularly delivered in Auckland and Sydney
N forty days, or ten days less than the present
average by the Suez route
The first vessel to leave Sydney, under the
auspices of the Pacific Mail Company, will be
he Tasoo de Cana, Nov. Is. She will be fol-
owed by the Coli1la, December IL then by the
Aikado, January Is, at which date the new
ihips viii be ready to take their places, and
he three above named will be Withdrawn, as
neither of them has the speed nor the accom-
iations required by the contract.
We may add here that the directors Of the
Pacific Mail Company do not engage to have
I