OCEAN MAIL SERVICES

Evening Star, Issue 11674, 5 February 1902, Page 4

OCEAN MAIL SERVICES

AND THOSE .MEAT CONTRACTS. MORE PLAIN SPEAKING. [Special 'Jo thb Stab.] WELLINGTON, February 5. Speaking on the mail service resolutions brought forward by Mr K. Ramsay at the Chambers of Commerce meeting to-day, Mr John Duthie said that he had no sympathy for the position in which the Union Company now found themselves, as for years past they had consistently and deliberately thwarted the best arrangements that could have been made for a service via Australia. The action of the Union Company had been dictated by a desire to force us into the San Francisco trade. Speaking with regard to Mr Saddon's recent utterances on the meat contracts, Mr A. H. Turnbufl (C&ristcuurcli) said that a groat deal of claptrap had been talked about this matter by people in authority _ merely for the purpose of gaining popularity. It was ridiculous for us to try to teach the British War Office its business. As a matter of fact, the contract papers wwe in the colony in plenty of time, but the conditions of'the contract and the position of New Zealand rendered it impossible for us to tender. The matter should now be allowed to drop, and not make ourselves ridiculous. The resolutions that had been passed looked as if our people knew nothing about the incidence of the meat trade.