"Do everything by halves," appears be the maxim of our
present Administration. A Parliamentary Committee recommends monthly steam-mails to Australia, and Ministers advertise for tenders to carry mails once in two months. The advertisement may also be a mere blind, put out to save appearances : it will be so easy to back out of the pledge to establish postal communication by steam with the Southern Colonies, under the pretext that none of the tenders are eligible. This suspicion is warranted by the habitual dilatoriness of Government in such matters, and by their vague allusions to " difficulties " in the way of carrying out the recom- mendations of the Committee, uttered in Parliament a few days before the close of the session. Yet it may be said to have been demonstrated that regular communication with Australia by means of screw-propellers, round the Cape, is possible, and that this is the only practical route. It is a simple question of finance : can the steamers be made to pay ? It is clear that if pas- sengers and freight can be obtained, the payments for them together with a moderate allowance for letter-carriage will be sufficient to make the undertaking remunerative. But passengers will not go by the Singapore route ; the passage-money is and must continue too high. Merchants will not send goods either by the Singapore or Panama routes ; the risk of damage by transshipment is too great. Mail-carriage alone would not pay. But passengers can afford to proceed by the Cape route, and goods would be for- warded as there is no" breaking bulk" on the passage. The hesi- tation of Government implies imperfect knowledge of the ease, and that imperfect knowledge implies neglect in not seeking for proper information.
The discovery of " digging's " in New South Wales has con- verted Sydney—always predisposed to exciting speculations— into a San. Francisco in little. Sir Charles Fitzroy has issued a proclamation threatening the pains of law against all who shall dig or search for gold without a licence from the Crown. This threat is likely to prove a brut= fulmen, for want of an adequate army to enforce it.
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