THE TWO DOMINIONS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 825, 25 May 1910, Page 7

THE TWO DOMINIONS.

NEW SERVICE. DEPARTURE OF FIRST' STEAMER. By Telegraph-Press Association-Copyrieht Ottawa, May 23. The new monthly service from Eastern Canadian ports to Nt'w Zealand and Australia, the contract fop which is held by the New Zealand Shipping Company, has been inaugurated by the departure from Montreal of the liakaia. She has a cargo of MOO tons, including paper and agricultural machinery. CONDITIONS OF THE SERVICE. DIRECT SHIPMENT INSTEAD OF VIA NEW, YORK. The Rakoia will bo followed in the now monthly survico by the Whakataue, which is to leave Montreal on June 15. Terms of Subsidy. The service will be from Montreal during tho summer months and from St. Johns or Halifax during tho winter, when tho St. Lawrence is blocked by ice. From there it will proceed to St. Vincent, in the Capo de Verdo Islands, for coal, thence to Cape Town and Australia. Though tho vessels call at Cape Town, tho service is not regarded as a new link between Canada and South Africa. On tho contrary, it has been stated that cargo will not be carried on that run, since there is already a line subsidised by the Canadian Government for the South African trade. In a statement on the subject, Mr. C. J. Cowan, one of tho joint managers of the New Zealand Shipping Company in London, said that the subsidy paid by Canada (£24,000 a year, or .000 a sailing), was purely for a service every month from Canada to Australia and New Zealand. There was no provision for tho return voyage, so the ships were free to load back for London or anywhere else so long as they left Canada for Australasia overy month. Frozen Meat Possibilities. "One of the stipulations in the contract," said Mr. Cowan, "is that the steamers shall bo fitted with refrigerating chambers, so it is evident that Canada anticipates there will bo a return trade in frozen meat. If, eventually, the Governments of Australia and New Zealand are prepared to subsidise tho return service, and if the Canadian Government will in return reduco tho duties on frozen meat, there ought to bo a gpod opening for it in Canada. Personally, I think it not at all unlikely that if tho Canadian Government were approached by New Zealand and Australia on the subject, they would bo prepared to make some such concession. "At present a small quantity of meat comes to Canada on tho Pacific side, but that is all absorbed on the western side of the Rockies. None of it gets to the east, where there is very little mutton of any kind.. What there is does not compare with that of Australasia. There are some very large towns in the eastern provinces. Montreal has about 550,000 people, Toronto close on .100,000, and Winnipeg something like 200,000; and there are besides Ottawa nad Quebec, and many more large towns. They could absorb a very largo quantity of frozen meat." New York Charges Avoided Apart from this prospective trade, Mr. Cowan considers Now Zealand ivill at first send to Canada chiefly kauri gum, wool, hemp, and hides, while tho cargo tho other way will comprise all sorts of machinery, papers, leather, boots and shoes, and in fact practically everything that the United States is sending to-day. The service will place tho Canadian exporters in a position to meet the preferential shipping facilities, which, in the past, have penalised Canadian goods at least to the extent of the preferential tariff in the Australasian States. Canada is- paying 120,000 dollars a year for the service, that u to say, £2000 for each of the monthly steamers. They will necessarily bt- only cargo steamers, since passengers will find several shorter routes to Australia. The sailing data from Canada will be always about the middle of the month. The new link will give New Zealand prodncors an opportunity of thoroughly testing. trade possibilities with the older Dominion. Tho .ports of discharge are Melbourne, Sydney, and the four principal ports in New Zealand. .