THE VANCOUVER MAIL. SERVICE.

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 112, 13 May 1899, Page 5

THE VANCOUVER MAIL. SERVICE.

ITS SUDDJEN STOPPAGE. GENERAL INCONVENIENCE CAUSED.

[frojj: our special correspondent.] London, 1241 h March. Although in common with mo.sl other ev-colonihts residing in London f. have hitherto found Ihu Vancouver mail service of little, if any, use — indeed, in some respects, a positive nuisance, because of its misleading my correspondents into pending letter? by a route v inch ha? never proved satisfactory or trustworthy — it is nevertheless somewhat embarrassing to find the service cut oft' at a moment's notice. The immediate practical efect is that many people who have been in the habit of using the Vancouver mail service will find themselves utterly stranded ; that is to say, they will flock lq the various Post Offices to post their letters, and their letters won't go. If they make enquiries inside they will piobably find about one in every ten of the offices possesses a clerk who has casually become aware that the Vancouver service is no more. But in the majority of cases they will simply drop their letters in the slot and probably will not learn for months to come what has been the chequered fate of those haple&s dqcuments. For at present it is entirely doubtful what will happen to the New Zealand letters posted after 6 this evening. I understand that the Agent-General has requested the Post Office authorities to forward them by the next Suez mail, but from what I can hear, and judging by the usual eccentricity of British Post Office methods, I think it is -highly probable that a considerable portion of the correspondence will be coolly sent on as usual to Vancouver in calm and placid disregard of the fact that there will be no steamer there to take it on to New Zealand, in which case the unhappy letters may experience a prolonged and erratic series of peregrinations about the surface of the habitable globe, and may not reach their addressees until some date too remote to be speculated upon. The whole affair has been a shocking bungle. v In what I have said I do not intend to imply the slightest reflection upon the manner in which the New Zealand Shipping Company has conducted the service since it fell into the company's hands, through the Huddart failure", nor do I blame Mr. Huddart himself except for some degree of rashness in undertaking an enterprise disproportionate to his means of execution, but unquestionably there has been in a general way a series of messes and muddles and misunderstandings from the premature initiation of the service to this, its untimely termination. I must confess, too, that I cannot help feeling some degree of dissatisfaction with the manner in -which the difficulty has been dealt with at the New Zealand Agency General. I quite recognise that everything passible was done in the way of giving intimation to the British postal authorities, but I think that New Zealanders, whether resident in the colony or in Londpn, are warranted in expecting that their Agent-General shall in a case of this sort take active steps to ntake generally and publicly known sq important an alteration in the mail service as this" present one. Most certainly it might have been arranged to have paragraphs inserted in good time in all the leading papers, and as certainly this at least ought to have been done. I have personally informed as many New Zealanders as possible of the important change, but this sorb of thing involves a good deal of trouble, and is no part of my duty, while an Agent-General and his staff are paid for such services. Beyond those connected with the Cani-dian-Australian line, x\o one .appears to have entertained any idea that' the shipping company would decline to renew the contract to convey the New Zealand mails from Canada, Honolulu, and Suva. The first intimation that the postal authorities here had of the change was a request from the New Zealand Agency-General to send this week's mails yja Suez and the Federal service. Afc Viptoria-street they appeared as much surprised as anyone, and on hearing the decision frpm the shipping company they at once cabled to the Government at Wellington. However,' the decision of the company was irrevocable. Yesterday officials from St. Martin's le Grand (General Post Office) interviewed Mr. Cowan, of the shipping company, to learn full details of the new arrangement. I, too, made a special point of seeing Mr. Cowan, the liquidator of the company, upon whom the responsibility rests. There was not, he remarked, much to say from the company's point of view — the contract had been only for a year, and it had expired ; that was all. What, I asked, was the objeption *o renewing the contract? ' - "So many complaints have been leceived from Australian and» Canadian passengers," he replied, "as to being taken to New Zealand, where they did not want to go, that it was thought better to abandon your colony and go to Brisbane instead. We shall take the Canadian-Aus-tralian mails .there, and very likely later on we shall arrange with Queensland to carry their Homeward mails, for our route will probably prove quicker than the present one via Suez. At any rate, the distance from Adelaide to Queensland will be saved. Perhaps, also, we shall convey the Homeward mails for pther Australian colonies as well as the Canadian mails." Naturally I wanted precise information as to the objection to going to New Zealand. "It is such a long distance out of the way from Canada to New Zealand. That objection will' always stand in the way, and I am afraid that New Zealand will never have another Vancouver service. No," he added, "it was not a question of terms at all, but of convenience." I expressed surprise at the suddenness of the resolve. "To the New Zealand Government it may have been sudden," Mr. Cowan responded, "but not to us. I do not know whether they were in hopes that the -contract would be renewed, but so far as we were concerned we have been in negotiation with .Queensland for -some time. And Aye have not been in negotiation with New Zealand. .Our contract expires on 31st March; they knew that the service has not been a success from our point of view, and therefore we have taken it off. We have to make the company pay ; that is our first consideration." In further conversation, Mr. Cowan informed me that the Warrimoo would leave Vancouver on 6th April for Brisbane, and they expected- to save three days on the trip to Sydney for those passengers who went all the way in the vessel, and four days for those who travelled' from Brisbane .overland. By this route the mails would also be taken. The vessels, as hitherto, would touch at Suva and Honolulu. As I was leaving Mr. Cowan laughingly suggested that now was a good opportunity for the New Zealand Government to arrange for a fortnightly • service via San Francisco. , A frightful mess appears to have been made by the General Post Office authorities in conection Arith the change, and it is greatly to be feared that the majorky of those who send correspondence to NewZealand are cA r en now in ignorance of the fact that the mail should leave to-night via Italy. In several places in the cuy to-day 1 found firms connected with jSew Zealand without the slightest knowledge of the fact that the Vaucou\ r er service Avas noAA- non-existent. The General Post OruVe Avas advised by the Agency-General directh Mr. CoAvan intimated the decision not to renew the contract — in this the New Zealand authorities performed all that vris

required of thorn, so far as the Post Offico was concerned. Ju fact, had they .ittemptcd more they Avould probably ha/c been told to " mjr)d their o\wi business.' 1 But by some stupid pipce of blundering the General Post Oifiuj folk applied to the Canadian Pacific Railway authorities, Avho, of cqur.se, said they would co.wcjy the maijs as usual. Thcieupon the Po:-Lal authorities advised enquirers — the Bank qi NuAyr Zealand among others — fch.it the Vauco a ".r moil Avould leave as UM.al on Saturday. How (hey could iuu'e made such a blunder is inconceivable, for 1 know they a\ ere :!), coiumuniciiiq.i with i\lr. Uov.iiu, a\l.o, .-s with me, avus very definite that Hie \V\iriimoo would not go to Wellington. And lv, make confusion a\ ov.se confounded, the shipping company di.l not alter, up to :he latest advertisements 1 have seen, its notices of VancouA'er-U'elliuyton sailings. Of course, the Canadian-Pacific Railway Company afouIo" convey the mails as far vis Vancouver. So far as the Agency-Qemval and Mr. CoAvan Ayere concerned^ ihuy g-'tvc to the Post Oilice Avhat notification they could. Probably in a day or la^o's time the General Post Office Avill Mjike up io the fact that the 'Frisco and Federal services are iioav the only ones (serving Roy Zealand.