The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 213, 9 September 1890, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

For the cause that lacks assistance, Tor tha -ffTong that needs resistance, Sor tie future Jα the dlßtance, And tho good that we can do.

TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 9. 1890.

The San Francisco mail service will probably be saved after all. This intelligence, conveyed in a message from our Parliamentary reporter yesterday, will give general satisfaction in Auckland, a feeling that will be enhanced when it becomes known that the improved prospects of the service are due to a recognition of its merits by the Imperial Government.

The attitude of the British postal authorities hitherto has been one of indifference, if not of actual hostility, towards the San Francisco service. The vast British interests in the East naturally exercise a preponderating influence over the Imperial policy; and, for the Australian colonies, there is, of course, no disputing the superiority of the Suez route over all others. Since the construction of the Canadian Pacific railway, the Home Government have been inclined to support a mail service sea-borne in British bottoms, and conveyed from beginning to end under the segis of the Union Jack. However, matters are not sufficiently developed for the establishment of steamship and cable connections between Vancouver and Australasia, although these enterprises are among the certainties of the future. The San Francisco Service possesses tbe advantages of an established trade, built up by the heavily - subsidised steam services of the past eighteen years. A much smaller subsidy, therefore, will suffice to maintain a fast mail delivery, land-borne between Atlantic and Pacific across tbe United States, than would be requisite to provide for a CanadianPacific service. For many years the steamers running between Vancouver and Australasia could count upon very little aid in the sßape of receipts for freight. The negotiations with Canada for a service girdling the globe with a thin red line have resulted in nothing practical. It became, therefore, a question whether the Western route to Australasia should be altogether abandoned, forfeiting all the mercantile advantages that have grown up in connection

with it, or whether an effort should be made for its maintenance with a view to future eventualities.

The Imperial Government were moved to their decision by two considerations. They are already contributing a year toward the Federal Service between London and Australia, via Brindisi, and it is admitted that the Direct Service, with which the interests of New Zealand are bound up, cannot compete in point of speed with the Suez mails, carried irom Calais to Brindisi and from Adelaide to Sydney by railway. A subsidy to the Direct Service, which is perfectly justified on commercial grounds so far as New Zealand is concerned, had not equal claims upon the Home Government, and they finally decided that no pecuniary support could be given from the Imperial Treasury to that Service. The matter, therefore, narrowed itself down to this, that by refusing to assist the San Francisco Service, the Imperial Government would have manifested a lack of interest in New Zealand's commercial interests, and would also, by the adoption of a selfish and unsympathetic policy, have deliberately closed the alternative Western route to these important colonies, staking everything upon the Eastern services, which may any day be interrupted by the outbreak of war in Europe. Happily, the policy of Great Britain when dealing with questions of commerce is invariably liberal; hence its virtual monopoly of the great highways of trade. Divesting ourselves of local sympathies and interests, and placing ourselves in the position of the British PostmasterGeneral, we cannot but acknowledge that there was a very great deal to be said in favour of refusing to subsidise any but the Federal Service, which, with proper connections at Sydney, would give us a weekly mail delivery equal in speed to that via San Francisco. However, the views of the Home Government were not hedged in by their partnership interests in the Federal Service, nor limited to considerations of rapid despatch ; they fairly weighed the collateral issues and decided to offer a year to keep the service going. Contrasted with the behaviour of the American Government towards this service, the conduct of the Home Government has been munificent. The service is carried on in American ships, it has become an important feeder to American commerce; statistics prove conclusively that the barter account is heavily against us, and is paid by a steady drain of Australian gold. Yet even the paltry subsidy of 2,000 a year which is now offered by the authorities at Washington has been given grudgingly, and under great pressure. Because of the unresponsive attitude uniformly preserved by the American Government, the regret expressed in view of the discontinuance of the service—at one time considered inevitable—was much less pronounced than it would otherwise have been. The withdrawal of New South Wales was, we believe, due to that cause alone. Mr R. J. Creighton, in a letter last June to the Superintendent of Foreign Mails at Washington, stated this truth in unpleasantly plain English : " The PostmasterGeneral of New South Wales," he observed, "in a published document, recently voiced public opinion in Australia, when he called attention to the parsimonious policy of the United States, which was sacrificing its trade with Australia by depending upon the bounty of the colonies for its postal and passenger facilities. The absolute withdrawal of New South Wales will put the United States out of direct touch with Australian trade, which aggregated last year 648,000,000 dollars." However, let us hope that the offer of ;£ 12,000 a year towards ! the service, tardily though it has been, is the harbiDger of better things. At present, the subsidy received by the contractors of the service from all sources is about a year. New South Wales has paid and New Zealand The American contribution amounted to but part of it was payable to the contracting colonies. It is now announced that the contractors are willing to perform the service for very much less than they have hitherto received, and that the Postmaster-General sees his way to making a reduction in the postage both via San Francisco and the direct steamers from 6d to per half-ounce. These results are much more favourable than we could have hoped for. The negotiations have been conducted with a great deal of skil and patience, and we congratulate M Mitchelson heartily upon the result o his efforts to settle a most importan and exceedingly troublesome question