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

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 177, 26 July 1913, Page 4

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

For the eaute that lacks astiatmne*, For th* wrong that needs resistance, For the, futwro in the distance, And the good that tee oca i do. SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1013. . ' ...I. INTERCOLONIAL SHIPPING. The report that the P. and O. service between Sydney and Auckland is likely to be discontinued has naturally been received with a good deal of regret and disappointment in this city. The advantages of such exceptional facilities for travel as the P. and 0. liners afford will be. severely missed; for from the initiation of the service it sprang into popu larity at a bound. It happens also that this year Auckland would ! be well pleased to see its means of oversea communication enlarged, rather than diminished. For, quite apart from the constant growth of our passenger traffic with Australia, tiie coming Exhibition is certain to attract a large number of visitors, and the summer season of lillo--14 promises to be the busiest from the tourist standpoint that we have ever experienced. U is, therefore, extremely i egret table that we should be in danger of losing the P. and O. service a! this particular juncture, and wo hope that efforts may still be made to enable us to retain it. But in the last resort we ought to bo able to secure all tho facilities in the uuy of transit and transport that wo actually need between Auckland and Australia through the magnificent fleet of vessels already at our disposal; at-d this is a matter on which, it seems to us, tho time has come to speak vigorously an.l clearly. Everybody in the Dominion is justly proud of our splendid locally-owned mercantile marine; indeed, the I"nion Shipping Company is regarded bv most New »alaniiors with patriotic pride .as a. sort of national institution. Wo have no desire to detract from tho laudable 1 energy and enterprise that the 1'.5..-,. Company has always displayed in expanding its fleet to meet the ever-grow-ing requirements of this country's trade. But we now feel compelled to repeat what we have frequently said before, that Now Zealand in general, and Auckland in particular, do not get anything ID--.0 as much benefit as wo might reasonably expect from the constant growth of the I*.S.S. Company, and the improvement in the type and standard of it= steamers. Naturally, wo are mosi concerned about the Auckland - Sydney weekly service: and, in our opinion, this leaves a great deal to be de«ired. The trip takes very little loss than it used to take under favourable conditions twenty years ago. tho mails are constantly delayed by th" failure of the steamers to arrive on time; and ihe passenger accommodation is by no moans w-hat wo might reasonably expect in amount or quality from a company which prides itself, above all things, in keeping "up-t.n-ila.te." But our chief grievance is that tiio steamers generally placed on tho Auckland-Sydney run arc altogether too small for the purpose. It is notorious that during the summer. when passenger traffic is heaviest, people are constantly delayed at Auckland because there is positively no room for them on the Sydney boat. And unlet*", much more eatisfaotory arrangements are made by the I'.S.S. Company before December, we may expect the coming season to break all records in this respect, with corn•equencce cxireni—V u:ipieasant for Auckland ami disastrous lo the Exhibition. One obviou= reason for these wellgrounded complaints is that the steamers now on tho coastal and intercolonial runs are too small for their purpose. ("In tho Australian coast, in the inter-State services, the steamers owned in the Commonwealth are. generally speaking, much larger thau most of tho I'.S.S. Company's boats, and provide much more passenger accommodation. A very considerable number of the Australian coastal steamers are of seven to eight thousand tons register; and if the Australian companies have found it noces.sarv to build larger steamers to cope with the growth of the passenger traffic, wo need hardly be surprised that the continual extension of our intercolonial trade should make the same demand upon the t'-iS.S. Company. It is true that the U_.S. Company has built several line passenger steamers lat-elv; in fact, its best vessels are equal to anvthing this side of the line. But we have only to look at the shipping advertisements to discover what has became of tbem. The Niagara and all the best and largest steamera in the U.S.S. Company's fleet have been put on the Vancouver and San Franciseo services, and New Zealand gets little direct benefit from them. We do not imply that these services are not worthy of such splendid etea—ens; and no doubt it ia a good tiling for Now Zealand that our American trade should be encouraged in this. -way. But tho present distribution of the U.S.S. steamers makes it perfectly clear that- do requirements of tho Australian trade are being rnthJeeely sacrificed tr> the American and Canadian services. We wieii Sir .lames Mills every succrss in his, attempt to build up an important and valuable connection with Vmcrica. but we can sec no reason w.hy New Zealand and Australia, which have ntade the U.S.S. Company what it is. fthould be left, out in the cold. It :s perfectly eiear to anyone who has observed ihe facts of the rase, that the intercolonial trade ought to be reorganised, bo iar as tbe provision of

larger and faster boats is concerned, and that the Auckland-Sydney service, in particular, ought to be supplied with a j "better class of steam era altogether, j Judging by the terms on which the L~.S. Company is preparing to erte-nd its capital, it can -well afford to build, or purchase, vessels on a generoue scale, and we hope that before our Exhibition opens the company will make some serious attempt to supply Auckland, at least, with the passenger accommodation it positively needs for the Sydney run.