Tux telegram which we publish to-day seems to make it certain that a contract for the conveyance of mails between England and the East by the Canadian route will be soon concluded. A few days ago we learned that the Government had such a contract under serious consideration, and the action of the House of Commons will enable them to come to a favourable decision, if they had not done so before or if they were in doubt. The decision of the House puts an end to all opposition at home to such a contract, supposing any has existed, and we shall learn in due course the terms on which the mail service is to be carried on. In the debate which took place in the House of Lords on the 29th of April the Under Secretary for the Colonies said that it had been proposed that there should be a fortnightly service and that the ships should be built according to Admiralty requirements as to speed, construction, and capacity as transports. The Government did not at that time see their way to this proposal and there had been another proposal for a mouthly service and a subsidy of £60,000. ''o this the Canadian Government had at first declined to contribute but it had afterwards expressed its willingness to do so. The letter which the local Agents of the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company addressed to the Chamber of Commerce states, that the Company was treating with Her Majesty's Government for a subsidy to a regular mail line to China, Japan and the East to alternate with the P.& 0.8. N.Co., and that a debate on the subject was to be begun in the House of Commons on the 30th ultimo. The Chamber we are glad to say promptly strengthened the hands of the Company by telegraphing its approval of the proposed line to the Chancellor of the Brel chequer. It is this debate which has ended favourably for the Canadian Railway Company.
The new line of steamers will benefit trade in Chiva and Japan by increas! passenger and freight facilities and probably cheapening both, Even with the steamers which the Canadian Railway 'o. chartered to open the line their operations have been successful, the steamers having been full of cargo and carrying as many passengers as their limited accommodation allowed, and it having been necessary to charter an extra steamer to meet' the requirements of the public. The traffic of the first steamers despatched from this side gives a fair promise of a successful futwa, when the steamers which are to be built shall have been placed on the line. The Abyssinia, the pioneer steamer, made the quickest passage yet recorded across the Pacific, and if our San Francisco Correspondent. conveyed to us the opinion of his fellow citizens, as to her class and capabilities, it is very probable that they would receive a slight shock when they learned a. few days after his letter was written that this lumbering old tub had made such a fast run to Port Moody. It is of course too early to say whether the anticipations of the projectors of the Canadian Pacific Railway are to be fully realised, and the greater part of the passenger and freight traffic to Europe and America is to be diverted to its steamers and lines, but there can be no question of this, that the Canadian route is looked on with great favour by travelers to Europe and by shippers of produce to Canada and the United States, and that it will put its rivals on their mettle.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.