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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
313
The
most
distant
point
to
which
English
mails
are
conveyed
by
the
British
packet
service
is
Auckland,
New
Zealand,
about
15,000
statute
miles
from
Southampton.
This
service
is
rendered
by
the
Intercolonial
Royal
Mail-packet
Company,
with
a
fleet
of
four
strong
steamers,
for
22,000l.
annually.
Of
course,
this
company
only
performs
the
journeys
between
Sydney
in
New
South
Wales
and
Auckland
in
New
Zealand.
The
nearest
point
from
England
is
Calais,
twenty-six
miles
from
Dover.
Notwithstanding
the
extraordinary
length
of
some
of
the
journeys
of
the
different
mail
packets,
the
Postmaster-General
informs
us
that,
except
in
case
of
accident,
the
packets,
even
when
late,
arrive
within
a
few
hours
of
their
time,
sometimes
within
a
few
minutes.
As
examples
of
remarkable
punctuality,
which
is
now
the
rule,
and
not
the
exception,
he
gives
several
instances,
from
which
we
select
the
following:--"The
mails
for
the
West
Indies
and
Central
America,
despatched
from
Southampton
on
the
17th
of
September,
were
delivered
at
the
Danish
island
of
St.
Thomas,
distant
more
than
4,000
miles,
at
the
precise
moment
at
which
they
were
due.
On
the
same
voyage,
the
mails
for
Jamaica
and
Demerara,
conveyed
in
each
case
by
a
separate
branch-packet,
were
delivered
within
a
few
minutes
of
the
time
at
which
they
were
due;
the
mails
for
parts
of
Central
America
and
for
the
Pacific
were
delivered
at
Colon,
on
the
eastern
coast
of
the
Isthmus
of
Panama,
distant
5,400
miles,
thirty
minutes
after
time,
the
packet
having
been
detained
at
sea
that
precise
period
by
H.M.S.
Orlando;
while
the
mails
for
Chili,
after
having
been
conveyed
with
others
across
the
Isthmus
of
Panama,
were
delivered
at
Valparaiso,
distant
nearly
9,000
miles
from
Southampton,
two
hours
before
the
appointed
time."
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