THE TWO DOMINIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 85, 12 April 1910, Page 3

THE TWO DOMINIONS.

A NEW STEAMSHIP SERVICE. XEW ZEALAND SHIPPING COMPANY'S ENTERPRISE. [rBOM Ot* OWN CORBESPOKDEKT] LONDON, 4th March. The connection that New Zealand has desired for vcrj many years with the eastern seaboard of Canada will be an accomplished fact within the next few months. Canada, it seems, has been even more anxious than New Zealand for this connection, and it is as a result of the older Dominion's generosity that the link Will bo provided. The service will be a monthly one for cargo steamers, and will be carried out by the New Zealand Shipping Company, whose agents in Canada for this purpose will be the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Until quite recently the New Zealand Shipping Company has been interested, with the CanadianAustralian Company, in the service from Sydney to the Western soaboard of Canada, but it has now retired from that undertaking. The new service, however, cannot be regarded as in any way competing with the old. The great I length of land carriage and the distinct needs of the two slopes of , the i Rockies draw a definite line between East and West, and the new service i will probably not affect in the least the i existing one by Vancouver. Hitherto | practically all the cargo from the eastern seaboard of Canada for Australia and New Zealand has been carried by way of New York, and, aeedless to say, this has not worked to the advantage of the Canadian exporters in competition with their American rivals. The new service which will commence inMsywillbe from Montreal during the summer months and from St. Johns or Halifax during the winter, when the St. Lawrence is blocked by ice. From there it will proceed to St. % incent, in the Cape de Veide Islands, for coal, thence to Capetown and Australia. 'It cannot be regarded as a new link between Canada and South Africa. On the contrary, it will not carry cargo on that run, since there is already* a line subsidised by. thsi Canadian Government for tbe South African trade. Explaining the terms of the subsidy to your lepresentative, Mr. ' C. J. Cowan, one of the joint managers oi ihe New Zealand Shipping Company in London, stated that it was purely for a service every month from Canada to Australia and New Zealand. There vas no provision fonthe return voyage, so the ships were free to load back for London or anywhere cUe so long as they left Canada for Australasia every month. AX OPESIXG FOR FROZEN MEAT. "One of the stipulations in the contract," said Mr. Cowan, "is that the steamers shall be fitted with refrigerating chambers, so it is evident that Canada anticipates there will be a return trade in frozen meat. If, eventually, the Governments of Australia, and New Zealand are prepared to sabsidise the return service, and if the Canadian Government will in return reduce the duties on frozen meat, there ought to be a good opening for it in Canada. Personally-, I think it not at all unlikely that if the Canadian Government were approached by Ne^nr Zealand and Australia on the subject, they would be prepared to make some such concession. At present, a small quantity of meat comes to Canada on the Pacific side, but that is all absorbed on the western side of the Rockies. None of it gets to the cast, 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 400,000, and Winnipeg something like 200,000; and there are besides Ottawa and Quebec, and many more large towns. They could absorb a very large quantity of frozen meat." Apart from this prospective trade, Mr. Cowan considers New Zealand will at first send to Canada chiefly kauri gum, wool, hemp, and hides, while the cargo the other way will compiise 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 the Canadian exporters iv 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 y/ar for the service, that is to say, u'JO for earn of the monthly steamers. They will necessarily be only cargo steamers, since passengers wifl find several shorter routes to Australia. The first steamer, the Rakaia, will leave Montreal on 14th May, and the second, the Whakatane on 15th June. The subsequent boats are not yet fixed, but the sailing date from Canada will be always about the middle of the month. The new link will give New Zealand producers an opportunity which they have long sought of developing their connection with the older Dominion.