No. 2, (with dispatch No. 99.), November 24, 1870
No. 2, (with dispatch No. 99.)
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND.
NEW MAIL SERVICE WITH ENGLAND.—MEMORANDUM OF THE POSTMASTER GENERAL.—IMPORTANT CONCESSIONS TO THIS COLONY.
Through the courtesy of the Hon. Julius Vogel, postmaster general, we are enabled to publish the following memorandum relative to the terms of a new contract for a mail service between New Zealand and San Francisco:
“The postmaster general records with much gratification that, after considerable difficulty and protracted negotiation, he has succeeded in arranging the terms of a new contract for a mail service between New Zealand and San Francisco, with Mr. A. Neilson, the confidential representative of the North Pacific Transportation Company, (Messrs. Holladay & Brenham, San Francisco,) between which company and Mr. Webb, of New York, there has been an amalgamation of interests, and an arrangement entered into by which Mr. Webb’s ships are to perform the service.
“The following is an outline of the arrangement entered into:
“The contractors are to establish a line of mail steamers, under the style and title of ‘The United States, New Zealand, and Australian Line;’ the steamers to be employed are to be the Nevada, the Nebraska, and the Dacotah, with the proviso that the Moses Taylor may be temporarily used in the event of accident to any one of the three vessels named; and, further, that should any of the three vessels become unserviceable, others are to be substituted, to be approved by the postmaster general. The contract vessels are to be, in every respect, first-class mail and passenger steamers, and to be maintained as such.
“The contract is to be for ten years, subject to the condition that, within six months from the arrival of the first boat at Wellington, (say about the beginning of September,) the assembly may decide that the duration of the contract shall be for three years only; but the government are to use their best endeavors to secure that the ten years’ period be accepted by the assembly.
“The service first commenced is to be a temporary one; and in the contract it is to be described as ‘line No. 1.’ Three alternative lines are provided for—one of which will have to be finally adopted, under conditions set forth in the contract, and which the postmaster general proposes now to indicate. To all the four lines one feature is common—that the main boat runs from San Francisco to Port Chalmers, calling at Auckland, Wellington, and Lyttelton.
“Line No. 1.—A steamer to leave San Francisco once in every calendar month, commencing on the 16th of February next, and to proceed to Port Chalmers, calling at Auckland, Wellington, and Lyttelton, and to return from Port Chalmers to San Francisco once in every calendar month, calling at Lyttelton, Wellington, and Auckland. Between San Francisco and Auckland two ports may be visited; these ports to be selected by Mr. Neilson, but to be within the Hawaiian, Society, Navigator, or Feejeean groups. The ports so selected are to be visited for coaling purposes only, and there is an express prohibition against any connection being effected between either of the coaling ports and any port in New Caledonia or in Australia. For this line the payment is to be £40,000 for twelve complete services; and any subsidies received from Australia or New Caledonia are to be equally divided between the New Zealand government and the contractors.
“Within six months of the date of arrival at Wellington of the first contract vessel, the postmaster general may give to the contractors notice that he adopts as the alternative of the initiatory line (No. 1) the line described in the contract as—
“Line No. 2.—This line is for a service precisely as described under the heading ‘line No. 1,’ but thirteen complete services are to be performed within the year, instead of twelve, and the contractors are to establish a branch steamer between Auckland and Sydney, and any other branches they please from New Zealand ports, but they are not to be at liberty to run any branch steamers except from New Zealand ports. For line No. 2 the payment is to be £60,000 for thirteen complete services, including the branch line; and all subsidies received, whether from the Australian colonies or from New Caledonia, are to belong wholly to the New Zealand government.
“If within six months of the arrival of the first contract boat at Wellington the postmaster general does not give notice to adopt line No. 2, the contractors may elect to carry out line No. 3 or line No. 4.
“Line No. 3 is similar to line No. 1, only that the contractors are to receive the subsidies from the other colonies, less 10 per cent. to be paid to the New Zealand government. They are to be at liberty to establish branches to any Australian colony or to New Caledonia from New Zealand, but they are not to run any branch boats except from New Zealand ports. The payment for line No. 3 is to be £40,000, the contractors receiving all subsidies paid by other colonies, and retaining the amount less 10 per cent., which they are to pay to the New Zealand government.
“Line No. 4 is the same as the others in regard to the main boats running to Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, and Port Chalmers; but the contractors are to be at liberty to run branches from the Feejee Islands to Australia, and to make such arrangements as they please respecting subsidies from colonies other than New Zealand. The payment for this line to be £30,000 per annum.
“Time.—In each of the four cases described, the contract time between San Francisco and Auckland is to be twenty-four days; and the contractors are to use all diligence to perform the distance between Auckland and Port Chalmers within one hundred hours, subject to a penalty of two pounds per hour for unnecessary delay. If the government adopt line No. 2, the contract time between San Francisco and Sydney is to be thirty days. If the contract time is exceeded, the contractors are to pay a penalty of two pounds per hour for such excess, unless a reasonable cause can be shown for it; and they are to receive a bonus of two pounds for each hour less than contract time within which any service is performed between San Francisco and Auckland, or San Francisco and Sydney.
“The postmaster general is to have power to make and to vary time tables. The vessels may be detained twenty-four hours in New Zealand and twenty-four hours in Sydney. They may also be detained forty-eight hours in San Francisco whenever it may be necessary so long to await the arrival there of the mails from Europe.
“The contract vessels are to be exempt from all port, light, or wharfage dues or charges in New Zealand. On board each vessel, first-cabin passages are to be provided, without charge, for a mail agent and his assistant.
“The contractors are to enter into bonds to the amount of £25,000 for the due performance of their contract.
“The contractors agree, subject to a penalty of £1,000 per annum, to procure from the United States an exemption from all the charges for mails between San Francisco and London, and between New York and San Francisco, which are now imposed under the convention between the United States and Great Britain. The contractors also agree to use their best endeavors to secure a concession under which wool, the produce of any colony, contributing to the mail subsidy, and the fiber of the Phormium tenax, produced in New Zealand, shall be admitted into the United States duty free.
“These are the principal features of the contract. Some details have still to be settled between the contractors and the postmaster general. Until it is known what the United States Government may decide to do in respect to some of the open questions, it may not be desirable that specific offers should be made to the Australian colonies. The contract contains ample provision for securing payment of subsidies from other colonies. It may be observed that the post-office act, No 2, passed last session, and the terms of the convention proposed to the United States (which Mr. Neilson announces that the authorities of that country have agreed to) have been signally useful in smoothing over one of the most difficult features of the contract—that of dealing with non-subsidizing colonies.
“The postmaster general, in accordance with the resolutions of the assembly, made it a condition in every case that the main-line steamers should come on to New Zealand, and should call at Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, and Port Chalmers. There was great difficulty in procuring the consent of the contractors’ representative to the mainline boats visiting so many New Zealand ports; and the arrangement in respect to time between Auckland and Port Chalmers, with penalty for delay, is the very best that the postmaster general could succeed in effecting. The representative of the contractors declined to make any arrangement as to Napier, and whether the contract vessels will call at that port must depend upon future negotiations.
“Every one of the lines will substantially comply with the conditions laid down by the assembly in the resolutions of last session, but line No. 4, in permitting the diversion of the Australian traffic at the Feejees, will be least in accordance with the spirit of the resolutions. Unfortunately, it may be taken for granted that if the colony does not adopt line No. 2, the contractors will adopt line No. 4. They would by it, in all probability, obtain much larger subsidies from the Australian colonies than by the New Zealand route. In the case of the other lines, if the vessels call at the Feejees, they are to do so for coaling purposes only. The main steamer is to proceed to New Zealand, and no branches are to be run except from New Zealand ports.
“A subsidy of £60,000 may seem to be a large one, and especially so as compared with the amount indicated in the resolutions of the assembly. Care has therefore been taken to give the assembly time to decide whether the colony shall adopt line No. 2, or leave the contractors their choice between line No. 3 and line No. 4; but, as the point is certain to be immediately discussed, the postmaster general takes the opportunity of remarking upon it, without, however, committing himself to a conclusion as to which choice will be recommended to the assembly.
“Line No. 2 is, in effect, not widely different from the service contemplated by the resolutions. It is true that the amount named in the resolutions is £40,000, and that the assembly understood that subsidies from other colonies would go in reduction of that sum; but it must be remembered that for the £60,000 thirteen complete services a year will be secured, and also a branch line to Sydney; while the line for which the assembly approved of paying £40,000 would have been merely a line to New Zealand. The Australian colonies would have had to arrange for branch services, and would have contributed to the line only as far as New Zealand; under line No. 2, the colony will be able to offer to lay down the mails in Sydney. If line No. 2 is adopted, the £60,000 a year will be reduced by the amount of all subsidies received from Australian colonies; and if the concession as regards the convention between the United States and Great Britain be secured, (the contractors binding themselves in a penalty of £1,000 per year to obtain it,) the postages in England and in Australia would alone amount to a very handsome contribution from the Australian colonies for the carriage of their mails.
“In any case, the Australian colonies should unitedly pay not less than from £25,000 to £30,000 a year; and supposing the concession above mentioned to be secured, New Zealand would save a very large sum per annum in regard to her own mails, for the imperial government would hand over to the colony the postages collected on the other side, but which are now detained to defray the charges payable by Great Britain to the United States under the convention.
“It must be added, that the adoption of line No. 2, by placing the whole service in the hands of New Zealand, would secure that the traffic between Great Britain and the United States on the one hand, and the Australian colonies on the other, should permanently pass through New Zealand instead of passing by it, as would be the case were the contractors enabled to adopt line No. 4, and so to run branch boats from Feejee to Australia. Still further, if the colony should adopt line No. 2, not only will it include connection with Sydney from Auckland, but, by line of steamers already existing, there would practically be direct communication between Melbourne and the main line at Dunedin, Lyttelton, and Wellington.
“The postmaster general believes that the contract times are such that it would be impossible for the Australian colonies not to come in and contribute fairly in reduction of the £60,000 subsidy. The contractors have assisted in maturing arrangements by which the journey between San Francisco and New York, and from New York to San Francisco, will be performed in five days, instead of seven; and a steamer is always to be ready at New York to start with the mails for England as soon as they arrive. The transit from San Francisco to London will thus be effected in fifteen days; while from Sydney to San Francisco the time will be thirty days. Thus mails from London to Sydney, or from Sydney to London, would be delivered in forty-five days, and mails to or from Melbourne would be received and delivered in forty-seven days. Those times, indeed, would probably be materially reduced, for the contractors state that they would be able to save two days, should it be worth their while to do so.
“Supposing New Zealand adopts line No. 2, the government would be able to choose, under the thirteen-services condition, either Sydney or Melbourne as the port at which to make the times correspond with those of the boats of the Peninsular and Oriental Company; or the government would be able to give either Sydney or Melbourne an absolute fortnightly service to England. Whichever of those courses might be adopted, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that there would be a mail service to which public opinion in the Australian colonies would demand that contributions should be made; while it is also impossible not to conclude that, as a passenger route, the service would be unequaled.
“There are many other considerations to be taken into account in choosing between the services. Line No. 2, with contributions from the other colonies, and with the English postages which would be sent free by the United States, foregoing the transit charges, should not cost much, if any, more than £25,000; while, under similar circumstances, line No. 4 would cost about the same amount, with far less advantages. Line No. 3, with nearly equal advantages, would cost about the same, but with less risk of costing more, through the colonies not contributing. But the contractors have the option, if line No. 2 is not adopted, of choosing between line No. 3 and line No. 4, so that No. 3 cannot be counted on. It will be for the assembly to decide whether line No. 2 involves so much risk as to make it desirable to be prepared for the substitution of line No. 4, which, after all, would be a very good service. It or any of the other lines would give New Zealand a service which would cost much less than the Panama service, or than the Suez service (with intercolonial and interprovincial distributing boats) has cost, while, as compared with either, it would confer immeasurably greater advantages, direct and indirect.
“The contractors propose to charge £85 for the through passage to England, (including railway fare across the American continent,) and to leave to each passenger the option of proceeding direct or delaying at different places as long as may he desired. The postmaster general is informed—although it is not a condition of the contract—that a uniform rate to England is to be charged from all parts of New Zealand.
“Should effect be given to the provision for the admission duty free into the United States of New Zealand flax, and of wool the produce of New Zealand, or of any colony contributing toward the service, another inducement to the Australian colonies to contribute will be supplied.
“It can scarcely be doubted that the establishment of the line will lead to the development of the New Zealand coal-fields, in which case it would be no exaggeration to regard the subsidy as being more than recouped to the colony by the money payments for its coal, and by the employment of labor and capital which would be afforded.
“The time-table fixed for the commencement of the service is as follows: to leave Port Chalmers, Sydney, (if required,) and London on the 1st of each month, Auckland on the 7th, and San Francisco on the 16th. This will enable letters dispatched from London on the 1st of the month to be delivered in Port Chalmers on the 15th, and in Sydney on the 16th of the following month. There will be about a fortnight for answering, and replies leaving Port Chalmers or Sydney on the 1st will reach London on the 15th of the following month, thus giving a ‘course of post’ of about one hundred and five days, or three months and a half. The same will apply to answers to letters sent from Port Chalmers or Sydney. In the case of Wellington or Auckland, the time here stated would be reduced by several days.
“In conclusion, the postmaster general would observe that the contract appears to be one of an eminently satisfactory nature. It will stand the test of meeting the requirements of the whole colony as a first-class mail, passenger, and commercial service, and if tested as regards its effect upon the much-discussed separate interests of the different parts of the colony, the conclusion must be that no service more likely to do justice to those interests could be obtained, even if one could be devised.