Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

We observe at present that several of the leading emigration firms in London and Liverpool are making arrangements in Australia for the purpose of enabling settlers to pay the passage of their friends out to the colony.

Independently of the attractions offered by the gold-fields, of remittances from friends in Australia, or of Government aid, there is abundant certainty that emigration to that colony must increase very rapidly. In fact, scarcity of shipping is the only bar to it which is likely to be felt. There is a positive want of labour in Australia, which mocks at the childish efforts of such parliamentary committees as that of which Mr John O’Connell was recently the chairman, to prevent its supply. Notwithstanding its vast agricultural resources, the demand for their development created by a rapidly augmenting population, and the ample, and, in fact, extravagant remuneration afforded in the colony for every description of industry, the entire world, whose attention has been for the last two years attracted by its display of wealth, and which is assured of the genuine and permanent character of its claims to notice, appears unable to supply labour in sufficient abundance. Whether we turn to its imports or its exports, furnished us in the valuable report moved for by Mr Hastie, the great want of labour forces itself upon us. We shall take at random a few of the articles exported from Great Britain to the colony during the past three years:—

1851. 1852. 1853.
Apparel, Slops, and Haberdashery, £591,516 £959,687 £3,633,908
Beer and Ale, 135,674 245,657 635,870
Butter and Cheese, 4,142 50,583 207,094
Soap and Candles, 14,812 45,924 121,774

The last two items certainly would not occupy a place in the list of our exports to Australia if that fine agricultural country had even a moderate supply of labour. The anomaly is monstrous that butter and cheese, soap and candles, should be wanting in a country whose live stock are so abundant that they have actually to be boiled down for their tallow and hides! Our imports from Australia, however, exhibit most strongly its deficient supply of labour. We select a few items:—

1851. 1852. 1853.
Regulus of Copper, tons, 1,115 660 41
Unwrought Copper, „ 773 632 473
Flax, undressed, cwt. 1,259 904 664
Hides, tanned or dressed, lb. 931,600 642,198 9,842
Oil, Spermaceti, tuns, 1,911 1,609 940
Tallow, cwt. 174,471 159,333 125,206

The above articles the colony can supply to almost any extent; yet it will be observed that their export is falling off every year. Its mines of copper, especially, are amongst the richest in the world; yet they are comparatively unworked for the want of hands, whilst the world holds so many human beings who would gladly toil for one-fourth of the remuneration which Australia could so well afford them. To the people of Great Britain it is a very material object that the agricultural and mineral resources of the colony should be more largely developed than at present; for if, almost exclusively by the produce of her gold-fields, her population of little, if at all, over half a million souls can afford to import our productions to the amount of above fourteen millions sterling per annum, what may be expected when it becomes enabled to export freely the raw material, the agricultural products, and the valuable minerals—copper, tin, &c.—which its soil will yield to an extent almost beyond the power of calculation?

We have already stated that the increase of the population of Australia is self-creative; and we can very briefly show how that principle is likely to operate. We have a large amount of tonnage at present employed in the passenger trade from Great Britain to that colony; but we have not as yet sufficient homeward freight to employ one-fourth of that tonnage. Since the discovery of the gold-fields the ordinary agricultural and other pursuits of the colonists have been neglected; and, as we might have expected, the exports of bulky raw materials and produce, which constitute freight, have diminished in quantity. Hence our emigrant ships, except in the case of those of the established lines from Liverpool and London, which now return direct from that colony, have had to go in ballast to the Eastern Seas, or to the guano islands of Peru, to seek cargoes. Where such a course has to be pursued, the passage-money outwards must range high—far above the means of the most valuable emigrants, who are agricultural labourers, practical miners, and artisans. But this state of things cannot continue to exist long. The gold-fields are sufficiently tempting, no doubt; yet there are blanks there as well as prizes. The disappointed must resort to agricultural and other walks of industry. The flocks and herds of the squatters in the bush are increasing at a most rapid rate—far beyond the consumptive demand of the colony—and the supplies for export of hides, tallow, oil, and wool must very largely increase. Of the latter most important raw material the following were the shipments to this country during the past three years:—

Wool—Sheep and Lambs’ 1851, 41,810,117 lb.
1852, 43,197,301 „
1853, 47,075,963 „

In bales the total exports of last year were 153,000, of an average of about 300 lb. weight each. This article alone would afford return cargoes for from thirty to forty thousand tons of shipping. The yield both of wool and tallow must increase enormously in a few years; and when an ample supply of homeward freight is afforded, our emigration houses will be enabled to reduce considerably the outward passage-money for emigrants to the colony, and thus add to the numbers of its population.

But we cannot regard the discoveries which have been made in the countries of the Pacific as merely tending to give an impulse to our commerce, and to afford increased employment to our shipping and to industry at home. We must regard them in a much more extended light. The important change which is taking place may fairly be termed the opening out of a new quarter of the globe, rich beyond measure in all the products which are valuable and useful to man, and the establishment, in its centre, of an Anglo-Saxon empire, whose future destiny and greatness it is almost impossible to predict rightly. A glance at the position of Australia will be sufficient to show its great commercial importance. To the north-westward it has the fertile islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Philippines, Ceylon, with the vast continent containing China and Hindostan. The extreme portions of these are at less than half the distance which lies between them and Great Britain. From Melbourne to Madras is little more than 5700 miles, whilst the nearer islands in the Indian Ocean are only distant from 3000 to 3500 miles. From Melbourne to any portion of the west coast of North and South America the distance, by the eastward Pacific route, is 8000 miles, or little over that from Great Britain to Cape Horn. It is thus in closer proximity than the mother country to San Francisco, New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, and La Plata. There can no want occur of any of the products of the tropics, at all events, to a country occupying a central position as regards such markets as we have named, rich in all that conduces to the comfort and the luxuries of life; whilst of those products which are raised in the temperate zone, Australia has soils of her own capable of providing her with food in abundance, and raw materials amply sufficient to pay for all that she will require to import, without drawing upon her vast stores of the precious metals. These must rapidly become available to create for her population a capital for the purposes of commerce, a mercantile marine, railways, and other improved communications, well-built towns, substantial public works, and the usual accompaniments enjoyed by settled and prosperous communities. There can be no doubt that the absence of these are amongst the main causes which retard emigration to the colony of families belonging to the middle and superior classes, and the absence there so generally regretted of what may be called a “home circle.” Such a want keeps back the influx of a female population, especially of the class required to make a home comfortable; but it will be supplied in time, and, in fact, is being rapidly supplied now. Not much more than six months ago, Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, and the seat of the government of the colony, was in a most deplorable state, and without anything like the accommodation required for its population or its commerce. Stores and warehouses there were almost none; and we heard, by every arrival, of merchandise being sacrificed on this account. But more recent advices report that—

“Melbourne is branching out upon every side. Townships spring up in
localities where a short time ago there was not a single dwelling of
any description; houses seem, in fact, to swarm like mushrooms from
the ground in a single night. A little more than twelve months since,
and North Melbourne was merely the site of a few scattered tents; it
now contains a population of several thousands, with comfortable
homes, shops, hotels, and schools to meet the wants of its
inhabitants. The suburbs, that are being formed in the opposite
direction, offer a still stronger proof of the growth of a taste that
has always been peculiarly English, and one that will do more than
anything else to place the prosperity of this colony upon a secure
foundation—namely, a desire for home comfort. In former times the
pursuit of money was the whole, the engrossing passion of the
community; so long as this object was attained, the feverish seeker
cast not a thought upon the manner in which he lived; he appeared to
have an utter disregard of the comforts of home. If he happened to
have a run of luck, and was successful, what benefit did he reap from
his success! He would run riot for a time, and spend the hard earnings
of a month in the dearly-bought pleasure of a few hours’ debauchery.
The principal reason for this, next to our abominable land-system,
was, that the colony could not offer the swarming mass of new-comers
any domestic comforts. Now, however, the case is becoming far
different: at Richmond, Prahran, St Kilda, and Brighton, the passer-by
can gaze everywhere with pleasure upon pretty cottages enclosed in
their own little gardens, cheerful, trim-built English-looking villas,
and some dwelling-houses that may fairly lay claim to the
high-sounding appellation of mansions. Each of these suburbs, hemming
Melbourne in on every side, constitutes a town of some size; and we
have no doubt that, in a very short space of time, they will form part
of Melbourne itself, much in the same manner that Chelsea and Putney
do of London; indeed, St Kilda, Windsor, and Prahran are already
connected by a line of houses almost the whole of the way with the
town.”

A similar state of progressive improvement exists at Sydney, Geelong, Adelaide, and other towns. The population in them is becoming a more settled one; business goes on in more regular channels, and domestic comforts are more studied. Substantial stores for merchandise are also rising up on every side; and importers are now enabled to hold back their goods for a more profitable market than the previous system of selling them on landing, whatever might be the state of the demand, would admit of.

The colony, too, is assuming more and more the character, which it is destined to possess, of an important mercantile community; and its commercial firms are actively preparing for extensive transactions with the rich countries with which they have communication in every direction. The first step towards forwarding such object has naturally been to connect with each other the various ports along the coast, and the towns on the principal rivers; and accordingly we find established lines of steamers running from Sydney to the leading ports in the other provinces, and to the interior at every point where river navigation is practicable, and a working community and trade exist. The same accommodation is provided from Melbourne, Geelong, and Adelaide, to other ports and towns. Several lines of sailing packets also offer themselves to the public between the principal ports. In fact, a large coasting-trade is carried on, both in passengers and merchandise, the route by sea being preferred to travelling by land over badly-formed, and frequently unsafe, roads. In the first instance, some difficulty existed in procuring vessels, especially for the navigation of the rivers, where a light draught of water was necessary, as such vessels could not be trusted to make the voyage out from Europe or America. They are now, however, being gradually supplied by builders in the colony. A somewhat larger class of vessels is regularly employed in the trade between New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, and New Zealand, Van Diemen’s Land, and the government settlement in West Australia, with a few for San Francisco, Callao, Manilla, and the near East Indian ports. The enterprise of the mercantile community in the colony is being gradually drawn towards this trade; and shipping of the class suitable for it is in active demand, both for purchase and charter. Attention is also being re-directed to the staple business of the colony—the export of its wool, tallow, hides, &c., which will be more cultivated as the fever for dealing in gold abates. At present, indeed, gold, as an article of merchandise, scarcely yields a profit, so numerous are the buyers of it, competing with each other, belonging to the Jewish persuasion. Employment for capital must be sought for in another direction, and it is to be hoped a legitimate one, otherwise the large sums now lying idle in the colony may be squandered in rash speculations. At the close of the last quarter, the Bank of Australia held deposits, not bearing interest, to the amount of £1,998,730 sterling; the Bank of Australasia held at the same period £2,358,390; the Victoria Branch of the Bank of New South Wales held £760,731; the Bank of Victoria, £988,244; and the London Chartered Bank of Australia £133,200, making an aggregate of deposits, not bearing interest, of £6,239,297 sterling. As might have been expected, these establishments are dividing amongst their shareholders, forty, fifteen, and twenty per cent respectively. The last mentioned has only been established nine months, and as yet has made no dividend. A large portion of this money must be employed either in commerce or in improvements, as the colonists begin to see their way more clearly. It can never be allowed to lie thus unproductively; yet from the habits of the diggers, and their want of opportunities for investment, there must always be a large amount at their credit in the banks.

The increased employment given by Australia to the shipping of all nations is not, perhaps, sufficiently estimated by the public, and certainly goes far to account for the prosperity of the British shipowner, and for the high rates of freight prevailing throughout the world. From the 20th of January last to the 23d of March, the number of vessels cleared out from the port of Melbourne, exclusive of coasters and colonial traders, were 198, and the number of entries inwards 163, making 261 ships arriving and departing in the short period of sixty days. The bulk of these were large ships, of from 500 to 1000 tons, with some even of more than that tonnage. The arrivals and departures from Sydney, Geelong, and Adelaide would no doubt be greater in number, although of a less size than those of Melbourne. It is probably not unfair to estimate the entire number of arrivals and departures in the colony at 400 ships; and taking the tonnage at the low average of 400 tons each ship, we have the quantity employed in the two months, 160,000 tons, or 960,000 tons per annum, by this noble colony.

We must not, however, confine ourselves to Australia, although we might be excused for dwelling upon it as our own possession. It is a portion, indeed, and the most important one, as being the centre, and probably the seat, of the great Pacific empire which is to be; but still it is only a portion. We have a young and enterprising competitor for sway in the southern hemisphere, and one who is even now making vast efforts to assert that sway; a competitor who regards lightly the geographical formation of the globe itself, if it offers a barrier to his ambition. The acquisition, by the United States, of the territory of California, with its great mineral resources, has given their people a footing in the Pacific, and opened out for them a trade not only with the fertile countries of South America, but also with Australia itself. They outstrip us in their knowledge of the wants of those countries, and in the ample provision which they have been making for their profitable supply. Nay, they have even been enabled to bring their own gold-fields, notwithstanding geographical impediments, actually nearer to Great Britain than its own gold-yielding colony. On the first discovery of the mineral riches of California, it became an object with the United States people to bring to their Atlantic ports, as expeditiously as possible, return remittances in gold for the large shipments of provisions, merchandise, and necessaries, sent by them round Cape Horn for the increasing population of California engaged in mining operations, and by whom agricultural and other pursuits were almost entirely neglected. In the first instance this was endeavoured to be effected by the employment of a line of steamers to make the passage round Cape Horn to New Orleans, whence mails and specie were conveyed by another line of steamers to New York. But our quick-sighted and energetic brethren soon discovered that this natural route was too long for their purposes. The time occupied by the voyage round the South American continent could be saved, if the means could be found of crossing the Isthmus of Panama, which, from Panama on the Pacific side, to Chagres, or Navy Bay, on the Atlantic, was only fifty miles in width; and notwithstanding the passage over the isthmus was at first a difficult and even an unhealthy one, it was adopted; and the mails and specie, having been transported across from Panama to Chagres, were taken on to New York _via_ Jamaica, by the United States Mail Steam-ship Company. By the adoption of this route, the distance from San Francisco to New York was reduced to 5450 miles, of which 2100 miles was accomplished by steaming on the Atlantic, 3300 miles on the Pacific, and 50 miles by overland conveyance across the isthmus, and the time reduced to about three weeks. In September last, we find from an article in the _New York Merchant’s Magazine_, republished in the _Sydney Herald_ of February 23d, that the following was the provision made by the United States for their traffic with California and the countries of the west coast of South America:—

“Of the American steamers sailing between New York and the West
Indies, one of the most important communications between the former
port and Havanna is established by the United States Steam-ship
Company. By virtue of the law of Congress, contracting for carrying
the mails, the steamers of this company are commanded by officers of
the United States navy. Of the steamers of this line plying between
New York and New Orleans, embracing the alternate voyages of those
ships, the aggregate tonnage is 4800. The steam-ship ‘United States,’
in her trips from New York to Aspinwall, touches at Kingston, Jamaica.
The Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company, which, in connection with the
United States Mail Steam-ship Company, carries the American mails to
California and Oregon, was established in 1848. It numbers at present
fourteen steamers, built at New York, with an aggregate of 15,536
tons.

“In the transportation of the mails, the United States Mail
Steam-ship Company on the Atlantic side connects with the Pacific
Company. This line, established in 1848 by Mr Law of New York,
comprises nine ships now on the service, with one recently launched,
and not yet placed on the line. They register in the aggregate 19,600
tons. The steamers of this line are despatched from New York and New
Orleans for Aspinwall twice a month.

“The Nicaragua Accessory Transit Company was established in 1850, by
Mr Vanderbilt, of New York, and he receives twenty per cent of the
profits of the company. This line, forming a communication between New
York and San Juan del Norte on the Atlantic, and between San Juan del
Sud and San Francisco on the Pacific, is composed of ten steamers,
with an aggregate of 18,000 tons. Of these, two sail from New York
twice a month for San Juan del Norte, and five are plying on the
Pacific side.

“The New York and San Francisco Steam-ship Company comprises four
steamers, with an aggregate of 7400 tons; the ‘United States,’ 1500
tons; and another, the ‘Winfield Scott,’ 2100 tons; and the ‘Cortes,’
1500 tons, plying between Panama and San Francisco. They are equally
divided upon the Pacific and the Atlantic sides. All of these vessels
were built in New York.

“The Empire City Line was established in 1848, and is composed of
three steamers, of an aggregate of 6800 tons. The ‘Empire City’ and
the ‘Crescent City’ were the pioneers of this line, and were two of
the first steamers engaged in the California trade.

“From the foregoing estimate of the California steam-ships in
connection with the port of New York, it will be seen that the number
of steamers engaged in that trade is forty-one, including four ships
of Law’s Line, which were formerly engaged in the California trade,
but which now run between New York, New Orleans, and Havanna—viz., the
‘Empire City,’ ‘Crescent City,’ ‘Cherokee,’ and ‘Falcon.’ The
aggregate tonnage of these forty-one ships is 67,336. But this is not
all. There are ten American steamers plying between San Francisco and
Stockton; there are ten also plying between San Francisco and
Sacramento. The latter are for the most part of a larger size than
those on the San Joaquin river, and make the trip of a hundred and
twenty miles in from seven to eight hours. In the elegance of their
accommodations, and the luxuries of their larders, they might compare
favourably with any passenger vessels in the world. There are ten
other steamers plying from Sacramento to different places above that
city. One year ago, there was but one steamboat in Oregon, the
‘Columbia;’ now there are eleven steamboats of different kinds running
in the Columbia and Willamette rivers, not including the Pacific
steamers,’Sea Gull’ and ‘Columbia,’ running between Oregon and
California. At this rate of progress the United States will soon be
mistress of the Pacific. American steam-ship lines will, in a few
years, be running from San Francisco to Australia, China, and the East
Indies.”

There can be little doubt of the truth of one of the prophecies with which our extract concludes, that American steam-ship lines “will, in a few years, be running from San Francisco to Australia, China, and the East Indies;” but what a great future for Australia does this suggest! There must spring up a vast trade between her population and the entire Pacific seaboard of South America. When her agriculture is more fully developed, it is not at all doubtful that, whilst supplying even California with breadstuffs, &c., she may also supply the west coast of South America with the products of the temperate zone, and with the copper and other minerals abounding in her soil. We doubt, however, the truth of the prophecy that the United States is likely to be soon “the mistress of the Pacific;” to prevent, in fact, the trade between Australia, China, the East Indies, &c., and San Francisco, being carried on by Australian enterprise, aided by British capital. Fortunately the same enterprise, aided by the capital of this country, might be so directed as to confer a vast boon upon Great Britain herself. One of the leading sources of her present influence in the Pacific is evidently considered by the writer, from whom we have quoted above, to be the adoption by America of the short route to the Pacific _via_ Panama. That route, however, is equally as available to the commerce of Great Britain and Australia as it is to that of the United States; and the fact leads us to the consideration of one of the greatest wants of Australia, which has very materially retarded its progress, whilst it has also been severely felt by the mercantile community of this country—viz., the want of a regular, frequent, and expeditious mail communication between Great Britain and her southern colonial empire. We have already stated that during the past spring serious commercial losses have been occasioned by the want in question, no Government mail having been received in this country from Australia during a period of four months, up to the 27th July last, whilst we have been exporting actually at random. The colony and this country have been mocked by postal arrangements, proposed, but never efficiently carried out. The “Peninsular and Oriental Company” have been subsidised for the purpose of conveying mails once a month; but their efforts have been a failure. Not once in three times have we had a mail without a mistake occurring at some point of the route. Sometimes the steamers employed from Australia have arrived at Singapore or Point de Galle a day or two after the steamers for England have started. Occasionally a few letters have come, whilst the newspapers, containing the most important news for the public—shipping and market intelligence—have been left behind. A while ago, we heard of the “Chusan” steamer arriving at Sydney a day or two earlier than her previous performances led her to be expected; and it was with difficulty that the colonists were enabled to induce her commander to stay above twelve hours to enable a mail for Great Britain to be made up. Any one who has read the excellent digests of Australian news contained in the _Melbourne Argus_ and the _Sydney Morning Herald_, sent by every Government mail, may imagine that some time is required for writing them, irrespective of printing. The General Screw Steam Company also attempted the carrying of the mails, and subsequently the Australian Royal Mail Steam Company, both subsidised by Government, made the same attempt. They failed in the performance of their engagements. The latter had contracted to perform the voyage from England to Sydney in 64 days, and homewards in 68 days. The “Chusan” was 79 days on the passage from England to Sydney; the “Formosa” 76 days; the “Cleopatra” 120 days. In fact, the Company’s ships were laughed at by ordinary sailing vessels. Then sailing vessels were tried; and we were told that mails were to be forwarded by this or that “clipper,” the Post-Office guaranteeing its sailing on a particular day. But first-rate ships would not accept the terms offered; and accordingly, we had continual instances of those who had undertaken the work failing in its performance. There has hitherto been no certainty as to the mail communication between this country and the colony. We never could tell, within two or three months, at what date we might expect to receive the reply to a letter to Australia, or when one from Great Britain would arrive out in the colony. The merchant who had shipped, or made advances upon goods, had no certainty as to the time when he must make arrangements to meet the demands upon him out of his own resources. The want of certainty imparted an additional amount of hazard to the trade between the two countries. But this is not all the evil resulting from inadequate postal communication. It has tended very greatly, combined with bad post-office management in the colony, to prevent emigration. People accustomed to daily intercourse with their friends are unwilling to embark for a country from which they can rarely assure them of their safe arrival, or inform them as to how the world goes with them, in less than eight or nine months. A brother, a sister, or a friend, with whom we can correspond, is not as one lost to us. We do not regard them as quite beyond our social circle. But an emigrant to Australia has thus far been practically rendered an outcast. We may hear of him, or her, if fortune smiles, or dire adversity occurs; but the ordinary kindliness of brotherhood, or sisterhood, becomes neglected when the means of epistolary intercourse are denied. The rudest amongst us feel this as a bar to adventuring into a new country. The emigrant would be glad to communicate the tidings of his good or evil lot to sympathising friends at home; and there are few who do not know with what delight even the merest scrap of home news is received by those who are separated by far less than half the circumference of the globe from that home. What would not any Australian digger give at the present moment if he could hear his parent’s clock tick in its old familiar place? What would any parent at home not give for a glimpse of the present features of a child now located at the antipodes?

It is humiliating to us as Britons, to contrast the niggardly conduct of our own Post-Office authorities, and of the Colonial Office, with that which we have already shown was adopted by the Government of the United States towards the population of its new territory of California. Unfortunately, we are governed in this country upon “economical” principles. The spirit of the trader is carried into every department of the public service. When we ask for any comprehensive and perfect scheme of improvement, we are mocked by some petty expedient, because every successive administration, and every public official, are ambitious of doing their work more _cheaply_ than their predecessors. This is especially the case with respect to the postal arrangements of the country. When an extension or an improvement of the system is suggested, the first question asked is not, “Is it wanted?” but, “Will it pay?” Our American brethren have always dealt with the business of their post-office in a different spirit. They felt that those who are maintaining the commercial greatness of the country by their toil in California are worthy of being enabled to communicate cheaply with their friends at home. Our own postal authorities, however, appear disposed to treat that colony, which is similarly promoting the commerce of Great Britain, rather as an unreasonably intruding suppliant than an important community asking for what is fairly due to them. Our colonists feel deeply the injustice of their position, that, whilst a portion of the colonial revenue is contributed to the Home Government, to be expended in securing steam facilities for their mails, the object for which they are paying is not accomplished.

We feel perfectly assured that we never shall have an effective postal communication with Australia, until we cease to regard that important colony as a mere calling-station for our East Indian mails. Its increasing commerce with the mother country demands that it should have a mail service distinctly its own, conducted with no other view than to promote the convenience of that commerce, and of the people of the colony. How then is this to be provided most economically, and, at the same time, most effectively? The latter is the main question. We ought scarcely to think about cost in the effort to improve the postal facilities of a possession which, we have seen, took from us last year upwards of fourteen millions sterling of British produce and manufactures. Past experience has, we think, shown sufficiently that the object in view can never be obtained by steaming round the Cape of Good Hope. The shortest passages as yet attained by that route were performed by the “Golden Age” in 61 days, and by the “Argo” in 64 days. The noble steam-ship “Great Britain,” in the last trip made the distance to Melbourne in 65 days. The Australian Steam Navigation Company, which promised so largely, failed most unequivocally. The first of their ships, the “Australian,” took 44 days to reach the Cape; the “Sydney” took 54 days; the “Melbourne” took 75 days; and the “Adelaide” took 77 days. Of the two last vessels’ voyages the _Melbourne Argus_ remarked at the time:—

“The preposterous length of the voyage is a minor evil in comparison
with the anxiety which haunted this community for weeks in the case of
the last two steamers. We were almost on the point of giving up the
‘Adelaide’ for lost, when the lumbering old hulk was reported at last
to have rolled into Adelaide.... The mischiefs inflicted upon the
mercantile community here, by the detention of the ‘Adelaide,’ and the
fears for her safety, have been intolerable. Mails have been
postponed—goods have arrived before the advices or bills of lading had
come to hand—correspondence has been confused, and business
transactions have been utterly deranged. It is most provoking to think
that a steamer holding the Government mail contract, and for which the
mails have been kept back for several weeks, should leave London on
the 11th of December, and arrive in Port Philip on the 11th of May
following—a period of five months precisely!”

Undoubtedly the Company must have mismanaged its business, and its vessels been unfit for the service. But it is the opinion of all nautical men, that mails, conveyed in even the most superior steamers by way of the Cape of Good Hope, can never be depended upon either for speed or regularity. The most efficient mode which we have seen proposed for performing the service, is that of the Australian Direct Steam Navigation Company _via_ Panama. It is intended that this Company’s vessels, which are to be powerful paddle-wheel steamers of 3000 tons, shall proceed at stated periods from Milford Haven to Aspinwall (Navy Bay), on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus; from whence passengers and cargo will be conveyed by railway to Panama, on the Pacific side, and there re-embarked for Australia, accomplishing the whole distance, to or from, _in about fifty-five days_. That the power of fulfilling this promise is within the reach of an energetic Company, has recently been proved by the experiment made by the United States steamer, “Golden Age.” America, by the by, is still our pioneer in steam enterprise.

“The ‘Golden Age’—(we quote from an ably-conducted Liverpool paper,
the _Journal_)—steaming only slowly, and under unfavourable
circumstances, made the run from Sydney to Tahiti in 13½ days, and
from Tahiti to Panama in 18 days 12 hours. A more powerful vessel
would have performed the distances in about 11 and 15 days
respectively, and surmounted effectually the only difficulty to be
experienced in crossing the Pacific, namely, carrying coals sufficient
for the voyage from station to station. The detention, which in this
case was nearly 15 days between Sydney and Southampton, might be
shortened to about 4 days, by proper arrangements being made for
prompt despatch; and the voyage would thus be performed in from 50 to
53 days.”

A portion of the journey across the Isthmus, we may remark, was performed on mules, only thirty-one miles of the railway being as yet completed. The whole line, however, is expected to be opened in the course of the present year.

Many circumstances concur to render the Panama route infinitely preferable to any other. In the first place, the shortest distance has to be traversed. From Milford Haven to Sydney by this route is only 12,440 miles, the whole of which, with the exception of 45 miles, is by sea. By the present Peninsular and Oriental Company’s route, _via_ Swan River and Cape Leeuwin, from Southampton the distance is 12,855 miles, of which 238 have to be performed between Alexandria and Suez by canal, by the Nile, and across the desert. By the same Company’s route _via_ Torres Straits, the distance is 13,095 miles, with the same overland journey to make from Alexandria to Suez. We can only get our mails from Australia by either of these routes in sixty days, by the very costly express from Marseilles. The General Screw Company’s route, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, Madras, and Point de Galle, is enormously circuitous; and the same Company’s new route, without touching at the Cape, is 12,837 miles. There is another serious disadvantage connected with the eastward voyage. From the Cape to Australia the weather is generally boisterous, with variable winds; and in passing the equinoctial line, ships have to encounter calms, and can derive no aid from carrying canvass. The loss of that aid is a serious matter to screw steamers, in a voyage where economy in the article of fuel is so desirable. From Great Britain to Navy Bay, on the other hand, is usually a run in which canvass can be advantageously used, whilst the run from Panama to Australia is through pleasant weather for the entire distance, the Pacific fully justifying the propriety of its appellation.

Of course, a company working the Panama route effectively, with superior vessels, and carrying regular mails, must be subsidised by the British Government. Our colonists themselves would gladly lend their aid by grants out of their own public revenue. In fact, the province of New South Wales has recently advertised its willingness to give a bonus of £6000 sterling to any company which will bring the postal distance between England and Melbourne to sixty days each way. The Australian Direct Company, however, anticipate a good profit on their undertaking, irrespective of remuneration in the form of a subsidy for carrying the mails, as will be perceived from the following extract from their prospectus, published last year:—

“It is thought unnecessary to dwell on the great extension of general
traffic wherever proper facilities of intercourse by steam have been
afforded: it may, however, be briefly stated, that the produce of gold
during the year 1852, in the colony of Victoria alone, amounted to
over £18,000,000, with every prospect of a continuous increase,
exclusive of the produce of New South Wales, which forms a large
addition to this vast amount; that, during the months January,
February, March, and April last, the specie transmitted across the
Isthmus—from Peru and Chili, from the western coast of Mexico, and
from California—amounted to 20,410,796 dollars, exceeding £4,000,000
sterling,—and that the passenger traffic, by the same route and for
the same period, amounted to 10,568 persons, irrespective of those
conveyed by the San Juan de Nicaragua line. It may be, moreover,
observed that this extent of traffic, however great, affords no
adequate idea of the vast trade which will arise to feed this line,
when in full operation,—with all the important advantages of a
completed railway, and of a systematic conduct of business.

“Large additions to this vast traffic must necessarily flow from the
increasing intercourse between North America and the Australian
colonies, facilitated as such intercourse is by the powerful lines of
steamers already established between the United States and the Isthmus
of Panama in the North Atlantic, and between California and Panama in
the North Pacific. The augmented line of steamers, also, employed by
the Pacific Steam Navigation Company between Valparaiso and Panama,
must considerably swell the stream. These great results stand in
perfect independence of a line projected, which will in all
probability, at no distant period, connect California and China; and
likewise of traffic, the natural result of conveyance of passengers
and valuable merchandise diverted from old and circuitous routes.

“The Directors derive great encouragement from the knowledge that the
objects of this Company are favoured with the high approval of British
merchants in general. Many of the most eminent _London_ houses have
strongly expressed their approbation; and the following document fully
attests the spirit in which the enterprise is regarded by several
influential and distinguished _Manchester_ firms:

“‘We, the undersigned, being desirous of encouraging the establishment
of a line of first-class steam-packets, offering increased facilities
and advantages for the transit of passengers and goods to and from
Australia and the different important States in the Pacific Ocean, and
being deeply impressed with the advantages of the route by the way of
the Isthmus of Panama, since the establishment of the railroad at that
place connecting the two oceans,—hereby signify our approval of the
projected British and Australian Direct Screw Steam Packet Company,
for the purpose of carrying out the line of communication to those
parts in the most efficient manner. (Signed)—R. GLADSTONE & CO.,
HORROCKS, JACKSON & CO., ROBERT SMITH & CO., ROBERT GARDNER, SAMUEL
MENDEL, ROBT. BARBOUR & BROTHERS, JOHN PENDER & CO., GEORGE FRASER,
SON, & CO., HENRY B. JACKSON, R. I. FARBRIDGE & CO., B. LIEBERT,
PRESCOTT, BROTHERS, & CO., THOS. CARDWELL & CO., OSWALD STEVENSON &
CO., J. A. TURNER & CO.’”

It is most desirable that whatever line is selected for conveying the mails should be as far as possible remunerative, in order to enable Government to fix the rates of postage as low as possible. The present charges are preposterously high. A letter by a sailing ship, which may be from ninety to one hundred days on the passage, costs eightpence, if under half an ounce. By steam and overland mail, it is from a shilling to twentypence, if under a quarter of an ounce in weight, for what to a man, whose caligraphy is not of a diminutive order, or who cannot command “bank” or “foreign post” paper, must be only half a letter. _Cheap_ postage for the newly settled population of Australia, and for their friends in this country, is as essential as regular and expeditious mails are to the mercantile communities in both countries. We must remark, too, that newspapers and trade circulars are as much required to be conveyed expeditiously as mercantile letters. By the last overland mail a fortunate few received despatches _via_ Marseilles in sixty days. The bulk of the mail, consisting of newspapers and letters from emigrants, &c., was not delivered until the arrival of the steamer at Southampton, nearly seventy days from her leaving the colony.

We have certainly little hope of our Government doing much to develop the resources of Australia. The Post-Office authorities may, indeed, be induced to concede to the colony, and to the mercantile community of this country, a direct mail communication _via_ Panama, by the prospect—indeed, almost certainty—that if they fail in the performance of their duty, the United States Government will do it for them. The experiment made by the American steam-ship “Golden Age” is said to have been, commercially, an unprofitable one. But the application of steam power to the performance of long voyages is even as yet in its infancy. The chief difficulty hitherto experienced in making short and regular passages to a distant port has been the large quantity of coals required to be carried, which diminishes the power of carrying cargo in our mail steamers. It is estimated that our Cunard Company’s and the Collins’ boats would have to diminish their speed, and to forfeit some of their character for regularity in the transmission of mails to and from America, were the two countries a thousand miles farther apart. But at the present time an improvement is making in the machinery of one of the boats of the latter Company by her owners in the United States, which, it is stated, is likely to economise very materially her consumption of fuel, the saving by which may either be applied to increasing her speed or her carrying capabilities. The same improvement can be adopted in our Australian steamers. But from the Colonial Office we expect literally nothing. The treatment of Australia by that Office has been, from first to last, most neglectful; and even since the gold discoveries, and the recognition by all thinking men of the vast importance which the colony has assumed as a feeder of the commerce of England, our statesmen have appeared incapable of appreciating its claims to their consideration. A glaring instance of this perverse or ignorant blindness has recently occurred in the filling up of the office of Lieutenant-Governor of South Australia. The first party appointed was Mr Stonor, an Irish member, of no great mark in Parliament or elsewhere. This gentleman duly sailed for the colony, but was shortly after his departure unseated for bribery. Such was the grossness of the charges against him, brought to light by a parliamentary inquiry, that the Colonial Office were compelled to despatch his recall. Another Lieutenant-Governor was to be appointed; and the choice fell upon the Hon. F. Lawley, M.P. for Beverley. Mr Lawley’s claims to hold an appointment, so important at the present crisis in a country which eminently requires the supervising of a practical statesman, experienced in the management of colonial affairs, are not easy to discover. He was a young man—young at least in public life—twenty-eight years of age; had passed rather a distinguished course at the university, and had held for a few months the situation of private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer; but he was chiefly known to the public as a runner of race-horses, and a rather unsuccessful speculator on the Turf. The noble Lord at the head of the Administration, it appears, had some interest in the borough—Beverley—which Mr Lawley represented, and had also a son, who was ambitious of parliamentary honours. Mr Lawley was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of South Australia; vacated his seat for Beverley; and Lord Aberdeen’s son was elected to fill his place. We only mention this as a curious coincidence. But Mr Lawley had some sense of honour in his breast, as became a young man of his rank and birth, or he may have had merely a correct appreciation of “the fitness of things.” Subsequently to his ill-success upon the Turf—it is not said whether or not during his tenure of his confidential office under the Chancellor of the Exchequer—he had speculated on the Stock Exchange—and lost. His resolution—taken, no doubt, after a due examination of the state of his affairs—was promptly notified to the Government. He resigned the office to which he had been appointed; and the colony was spared the infliction of a Lieutenant-Governor in whom the propensity for gambling was so strongly developed, and whose favourite sphere of action would probably have been upon the race-course of Adelaide. What may be the effect upon the minds of the population of this treatment of South Australia by the Colonial Office we are not to foretell. It cannot, however, advance that Office in their estimation.

Failing the hope of efficient Government aid to the growth of the Australian colonies—as we think it will fail—those colonies have within their reach the means of aiding themselves in one vitally important matter—the securing of a larger supply of labour. The funds accruing from the sale of lands in the colony have, for some years past, been devoted to the purpose of assisting the emigration of useful classes of labourers—principally agricultural—to the various colonies; the business being managed in this country by the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners. Of course, a crotchety management was to be anticipated from such a body, composed of parties utterly unversed in the business. We believe it will be found by the colonists that the management has not only been crotchety, but extravagantly expensive, and even destructive of the lives of the intending emigrants. A few extracts from the Report of the Committee (1853) to the Colonial Secretary will be sufficiently intelligible as to the inefficient working of the present system. In the first place, it will be made clear that a great public office, with already a multiplicity of business to conduct, is incompetent, from its very composition, of carrying on a trade in which they have to compete with experienced private firms. After mentioning the utter failure of an experiment made by them of sending out a large number of Highland emigrants on board H.M.S. the “Hercules,” which was proceeding to Hong-Kong as an hospital-ship, and was offered them by the Admiralty for the purpose, the Commissioners report:—

“Meanwhile applications for assistance were made on behalf of Germans
and Swiss, and, by a very respectable committee at Madras, of the
half-caste population of India. But the growing eagerness to reach
Australia soon rendered it unnecessarily pressing for us either to
close with applications of this kind, or to relax our ordinary rules
in regard to British emigrants. This eagerness soon became
excessive—so much so, that, at one time, our office contained no less
than 18,000 applications for passages to Australia. The number of
letters received in the month of June, which, in 1850, was 1564, and,
in 1851, 2884, amounted in 1852 to 18,910, being at an average rate,
excluding Sundays, of 727 a day. And when it is remembered that a
large number of these transmitted small sums of money, requiring
considerable accuracy of treatment, and that a far greater number
respected the time and manner in which poor emigrants were to leave
their country for ever—a matter in which any inaccuracy, though
trifling in respect to the magnitude of the whole service, was of the
greatest importance to the individuals—that a great number of our
correspondents were persons who could not be counted upon for
expressing their own meaning with clearness, or understanding
correctly what was written to them—and, finally, that all this mass of
details, by no means capable of a cursory or careless treatment, was
to be disposed of by persons _partly overtaxed and partly new to those
details_, it will be seen, we hope, that _we laboured under no
ordinary difficulty in meeting the unusual pressure_.”

Of course, such a business, attempted to be carried on by an inexperienced public board, sitting in a central office in London, although dealing with emigration from various ports in the United Kingdom, was likely to run into arrear and confusion. Individual local firms, however, feel no difficulty in carrying it on, upon a scale fully equal to that of the Board, when measured by the extent of their establishments. Those individual firms would have forwarded promptly all the Government emigrants which the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners might have thought proper to hand over to their care, and managed all the details and correspondence dwelt upon as being so onerous upon them. But the Commissioners must needs charter ships of their own, throwing away all the advantages which private merchants possess, of procuring profitable freight for a portion of each ship sent out. And they had to “pay dear for their whistle.” At page 18 of the Report, they say: “The freights, which in June 1851 had fallen as low as £10, and in one instance to £9, 9s. 5d. per adult, rose in June 1852 to upwards of £17; and since that time they have actually reached the enormous amount of £23 per adult.” Undoubtedly, they might have reached this “enormous amount” at the time named. But private and most respectable and experienced firms, at the dearest time mentioned, taking advantage of their ability of paying merchandise freight, would have sent out emigrants, supplied to them by the Commissioners, at an average price of two-thirds the amount, and furnished them with the ample stores, the ventilation, and the other conducives to health insisted upon by the local Government Commissioners, in the case of voluntary as well as Government emigration. Taking from one hundred to one hundred and fifty passengers, paid for by the Commissioners, in each ship, they might have afforded to charge even lower.

But the Commissioners had a model system of their own to exhibit to the world, and peculiar views as to the fitting up of emigrant ships, more calculated, they maintained, to secure the health and comfort and safety of poor persons going out at the expense of the colony, a knowledge of the nature of which was denied to the experienced Government officers stationed at the various ports, whose duty it is to superintend the accommodation and quality of provisions afforded to persons going out at their own expense. Let us see what was the working of this model system! They state that, in consequence of the high rates for shipping, they were compelled to adopt large ships, and they add, page 18:—

“We lament to say that in those despatched from Liverpool the result
was unfortunate. Among the adults, indeed, no bad consequence
followed, but amongst the infants and young children, whose numbers
had been increased by the then recent relaxation of our rules, a great
mortality occurred. On the ‘Bourneuf,’ ‘Marco Polo,’ and ‘Wanata,’ in
which the aggregate number of passengers was 2581, the number of
deaths was 181, of which no less than 152 were below four years of
age. On the ‘Ticonderago,’ 165 persons died on the voyage, or in
quarantine after arrival, of whom 65 were below fourteen, and 18 were
less than one year old.”