FEDERAL MAIL CONTRACT.

Evening Star, Issue 12873, 24 July 1906, Page 1

FEDERAL MAIL CONTRACT.

' ITS TO US. [By Our Siitting. RnpoarKK.] So many mail contracts and rumors of contracts ;ire flying about now that the public may be pardoned for feeling a little '■fogged.'' There, probably never was a time when New Zealand shipping matters have .been so complicated as they are at present. Once we had three well-defined services—a'coastwise service, an Australian service, and a service to London. Nous avous change tout cela. We are trading everywhere, or rather every part of the world is, trying to trade with us. There are, for instance, all the mvsterious ramifications of our trade with New York. The operations and schemes of the group of merchants behind the • U.S. and A line could not bo told in many columns. On the other side of the American Continent two mail lines and an under-fed cargo sen-ice are plying. So far the Bucknall steamers have not absorbed a startling amount of cargo—a little tow and much atmosphere seem to be the principal articles on their freight lists. South Africa is another place to which New Zealand steamers plug wearily, often hardly drawing enough water to cover their propeller blades. West of England, East of England, Hull, Middlesborough, Cardiff.. Barry now trade directlv with us—all within recent yeaTS. Even Punta Arenas and wo arc doing a little business. Possibly we shall soon have sub, sidised services to Dar-es-salaam, Zanzibar, and Timbuctoo. Many of these services are .far from profitable, yeJi thev carry on somehow. What does it all mean? The abominable Boer War not more abominable than other wars, perhaps, but like all wars an injurious thing to commerce in the long run—supplies the answer. When hostilities began in 1899 the best calculations showed that the total steam tonnage of the world was a little in excess of the needs of the world's producers and distributors—'perhaps just enough in excess of requirement* for healthy competition. Wheu the British Government commenced to charter extensively for the. conveyance of troops and munitions, nteairetup owners in many ca.ses drew their vessels out of their ordinary runnings, and sent them post haste to London, or Chatham, or Portsmouth in the wild rush for the liigh war rates. Foreseeing that- a large proportion of steam tonnage would be lotted up for some time, other owners built tramp steamers in scorw, and hastened to pick up some of the trado wh'ich their predecessors had dropped. it was pointed out in 'Fairplay' and other papers that this could only end one way. When the war .ceased, and the war steamers were sol; free, there would be a plethora of tonnage, and a general famine among owners and s&eani shareholders. This ha« happened. And now the big offices in London and New York and elsewhere are sittang with the atlas open in front of them wondering where they will send their steamers next. New Zealand seeniy to be a place from which much is hoped. The latest, thing toward is the Federal mail contract. The contract stipulates for a service between Adelaide and Brindisi for ten years. This, it is said, is-to replace the existing Orient contract when it expires in February, 1908. The ques-rion is: Will this wrvice be extended to New Zealand? It may. We have but narrowly escaped the Norddeutscher Lloyd, as-everyone knows, The only thing that is certain about this servico is that it is no good to New Zealand, So far as is known, Sydney is to be the Australian terminus of the line. The steamers will, of course, land their mails at Port Adelaide, and these will be run on by fast trains to Melbourne and Sydney, and brought over by our own intercolonial steam services to New Zealand from the latter ports. The mails will therefore be in this colony' before the mail steamer herself arrives a£ Sydney. Unless she wishes to follow her own marls across the Tasmao Sea she.may then just as well stop where she is. Her value to New Zealand as a mail steamer ceases as soon as her mails are placed on. board trail at." Adelaide. The same thing-would apply, to the outward, voyage from. New •Zealand, only tie difference in time would be more marked.- It can safely be said •that if the vessel.left Wellington, for Sydney and other Australian ports en route to England the New Zealand mail matter to connect .with her at Adelaide might be despatched from the cokray from seven to fourteen days after the ship herself had sailed. While she was worlring the Australian ports the mails could easily overtake her. Therefore, both inwards and outwards, the mail . value to New Zealand of this service is nil.

It is useless to look for any advantage that- the new-corners may ba able to give us m other ways. In the matter of steam caxgo ;iml passenger service to England, Aire, are' ' already: v -served^kl•• four-. o^l9 .

of them, by the way, paying very handsomely. It the new-comers think that < T vu eani ulore tha n the oldestablished lines, thero is nothing, of course, to stop them from trying As a matter of fact, however, it would bo a costly experiment. The only point that might be gained by 11,000-ton steamers .coming on from Sydney to New Zealand would be to mate a fortnightly connection for passengers between Australia, and New Zealand. This would be agreeable enough for intercolonial passengers, but the intruders would find' the existing intercolonial services so hard to compete against, m the matter of facilities to the travelling public that it is certain that they could not hold" up tbeir end of the log without the assistance of a heavy subsidy. To pay such a subsidy seems like a waste of public money, seeing that the proposed _ service wonkl have no virtue, unless being a new-comer is a virtne. It is also doubtful if it would be fair to those lines which have already worked up the intercolonial trade so efhcicnUv. Cerit wouldbe a poor wav of'encouraging our own maritime enteprises. What the Seamen's "Union would say to the advent of the Home liner with the lowpriced sailor is another matter. Possibly the Union have not yet thought it over Would there be two. classes of intercolonial seamen and firemen—one class paid according to-Arbitration award; the other class 50 or 60 per cent lower?