The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

2QO LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1855-9
Panama route to Australia.
Another controversy relative to the Australian
service was as follows :
About the year 1857 a demand arose in this country
for sending the Australian mails by way of Panama, a
line of steamers across the Pacific having been projected.
The projectors hoped to divert a portion of
the mail service to that route, which of course it became
their interest to extol above all others. Their
recommendation was based on two alleged advantages ;
first, that the new route was the shortest, and second,
that its adoption in addition to the existing communi-
cation would turn the monthly mail into a bi-monthly
one. The comparative shortness of the route seemed
to be received by the public as a fact too obvious to
admit of question ; and as it was in connection with
this route that the suggestion of an intermediate mail
was originally made, the two projects became so
associated in the popular mind, that the adoption of
the one seemed essential to the establishment of the
other. Besides the new company, there were other
parties interested in the plan, viz., the colonies of
New Zealand and New South Wales, which, lying
eastward of the other Australian settlements, would,
by the proposed arrangement,
receive their mails
earlier than their neighbours ; thus obtaining what-
ever advantage attaches to priority of information.
Whether these colonies urged upon their friends in
England agitation
cannot say. At all
in favour of the new route, I
events, the demand was strongly
backed at home, some of the newspapers becoming
quite clamorous for the change, the Government being
strongly pressed for immediate action, and all hesitation
denounced as imbecility or red-tapism. It