OUR NEGLECTED OCEAN MAIL SERVICES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 636, 13 October 1909, Page 8

OUR NEGLECTED OCEAN MAIL SERVICES.

, (To tbi Editoe.) ' Sir,—lt is difficult to understand how so many errors over the mail services come to ] \><s crowded into the Governor's Speech. ' A i reliable and speedy service is important to i nil, but is especially essential in commerce, ' Twenty years ago, in the days of sailing Bhips, , a monthly or tri-weekly servioe: snfficed, but ( now, with k two British lines dispatching ; steamers . direct to New Zealand, , and ,t;wo : others via Australia, a weekly mail, service is ' 1 indispensable. Without it, invoices and other documents for Customhouse purposes would_ bo short when the steamers came to discharge,,'and shippers of cargo-via Australia would be deprived of the chanco of 6alo to arrive, and even the New York trade would bo inconvenienced.since payment for American goods is mainly made'in London, and docu T monts would be similarly short: By this Speech confession -is frankly made that the existing services .are .unsatisfactory. Tho contract dispatch from this port for London on Friday, catching the Federal steamer on Tuesday at Sydney, is entirely satisfactory. Tho continuing irregularity: over the inward mail ,via Auckland, where there is no. contract, is very bad. That mail, arriving from' England at by P. and Q., reaches Sydney on Mondays, and so always lies over. for two days. " The alternate inward: mail by the Orient steamer is only timed to reach Sydney on Wednesdays. On occasions :it is then .late, and so misses the Auckland: steamer- altogether, or that steamer herself is, as. lost week,' detained until perhaps next - day. Throughout last winter,'.and even this week, the slow steamer that has been kept in that service frequently fails to catch the Trunk, railway, train, and the irregular arrival of this, our. most important inward mail, ,bas, for these reasons, been a standing disgrace to our post office. Little has been said of late as to the timetable to be adopted when the new powerful Orient steamers begin to: run on their.contract; but a'saving was promised of several days and pur...Postal. Department will presumably have made, or are, making, arrangements for' a more prompt connection on both these inward and also outward services, if their dates are' altered.' The, speech further contemplates that the. Suez mail-, steamers may-be induced to come on to New Zealand, but as such steamers land their mails at A'delaido a week before, this would not, in any case, affect the mail delivery. '." While Anstrnlia~riattirally' looks to the Suez, route as its special responsibility, it of old more immediately fell• to New.Zealand to maintain the Pacific connection, but' through starving the San Francisco and neglecting the Vancouver, both would have been lost, only Queensland came to the rescue and prevented the collapse of the latter. Now it is proposed to tranship by. this Brisbane-Vancouver lino ; at Fiji, but connection there, whether by inward or outward steamers, must bo very costly and really of but small advantage. "" By the time-, table, .the' inward mail, for instance, is due at Suva on October 26, and tho outward leaves that port on November 1, an interval which would necessitate two steamers being omployed, since not even the fastest -in Sir- Joseph's dreams of speed could possibly carry both the inward and outward mails.. Undoubtedly • there ought now, to a fortnightly service across the Pacific. Sir Joseph admits that-his "All Red Route" has been killed (he slaughtered it in 1907), but there seems to be unexpected possibilities in his new, Tahiti-San Francisco scheme. The old steamers'since engaged there have kept wonderfully good time. There is fruit and copra to carry at this; end, and trade,tor be'developed with, both Barotonga and, Tahiti. From tie latter .there is .an .established trade with San Francisco, but-the service to -be of any'prac- , ticaluse would • require to be fortnightly,' and by more, modern, and' probably through steamers. Perhaps tho present admitted 'unsatisfactory, position .of ■ these , services !may yet 'result' in a. better., understanding with Australia being again established, giving" these' ■ States 1 a system- of mails, conceived-'in a .- true reciprocal spirit and with "a due regard to all.interests. . .. •.' .;.;...:. -~-.;. !",., '-'.:,•/- -I am,- etc.,- > „ ; ,'' : '' '' . A MERCHANT.' : ;. . October 12. • '.-'-•