AUSTRALIAN MAIL LINES.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 74, 27 March 1919, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN MAIL LINES.

DIFFICULTIES OF RESUMPTION.

MANY LINERS GUTTED,

(Received 0.30 a.m.) <

LONDON, March 26. A leading authority on Australian shipping, interviewed on the prospect of a post-war mail service, ridicules the suggestion that the Australian Government should purchase large and speedy vessels for the conveyance of mails and perishable products. Everyone wanted such vessels, which did not exist. The only vessels now purchasable were some standardised ships. Many mailboats had been used as minelayers, and had been absolutely gutted, while rails had been laid on the decks for mine conveyance. There was no seasoned timber for reconversion of passenger boats, and the staff of artisans was quite inadequate. It would be a couple of years before a full supply of fittings was available. At least nine or twelve months would elapse before it would be possible to restore the Australasian mail service on anything like the old basis, though the owners were doing their utmost. It was impossible that the new mail contractshould be anything liko as favourable as the old owing to the moast costing 2i or three times the pre-war rate. If the Peninsular and Oriental line secures the mail contract they would use white crews in the Australian trade, but it was impossible to man the mercantile marine with British labour alone. Negotiations between the Board of Trade and the shipowners were proceeding regarding the terms on which vessels would be released from Government control, and the conditions under whicli they would be worked in the future in order to secure precedence of Government cargo. AH the ships will probably be handed back to their owners within a month, and the Ministry of Shipping was going out of business.—(A. and N. 2. Cable.)