MAIL SERVICES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 341, 30 October 1908, Page 6

MAIL SERVICES.

The Premier appears to attach a proper importance to the value of mail communication with the outer world, but he is singularly, unfortunate in his ideas of how to attain the best results/ His latest subsidy to second-class steamers via Tahiti—a French port, by the way—is haidly likely to produce benefits commensurate with the expenditure of £7000. Ten trips a year ai'c to be made at irregular intervals for this subsidy, and the whole thing is "likely to prove a fiasco. It is a little better perhaps than the foolish proposal to spend £10,000 to secure steamers with refrigerator space tc develop a trade in mutton with Canada and bo prevent the Argentine from getting in first. This proposal to compete for a trade which does uot exist, and which cannot be created, is so remarkable that it should repay close investigation. In thj meantime, why does the Premier re : fuse to perfect our only reliable mail service? The Government is prepared to squander money in fancy subsidies for imaginary benefits, while it neglects a simple and certairi means of securing a direct benefit to the whole community. The Suez service, upon which the commercial community depends for its mails, continues to be muddled. The mails arriving in Sydney by the P. and O. steamers on Monday do not reach Wellington as a rulo until Tuesday night of the following week. Sir Joseph Ward can hardly claim that it is a question of money that prevents him securing an improvement of this service, so long as he is prepared to squander subsidies on such proposals as those outlined in his recent remarks in the south.