SOUTH STEAMER SERVICES

Evening Star, Issue 19326, 12 August 1926, Page 4

SOUTH STEAMER SERVICES

THE LiMK WITH AUSTRALIA BIG DEPUTATION PREMIER GUARDEDLY SYMPATHETIC. f. ' fFfiOil Ona P AS.LI AMENT AEY EkFORTERJ WELLINGTON, August 12. The institution of a regular steamer service direct from the South Island to Australia was the subject of a large deputation to the Prime Minister and to Mr M'Leod (Minister of Trade and Commerce). It was representative of the Dunedin and Canterbury Chambers of Commerce and the Otago Expansion League, and was supported by Sir Joseph Ward, Mr Sidey, Mr D. Jones, Mr Armstrong, Mr Sullivan, Mr Horn, Mr Waite, and Messrs A. and J. Hamilton.

Mr Sidey, remarking on the Premier’s expression of surprise, at so largo a delegation coming so far, explained that steamer services constituted a very burning question in the South Island. Mr Sutherland Ross said the South Island felt it was a blind end. Once there was direct passenger and mail communication with Australia. A large number of the firms in the south were the headquarters of large firms, but they had to wait long after the North Island for their overseas letters. It was not surprising that the South Island railways did not pay, as there was no through traffic. Manufacturers were trying to build up overseas trade, and rather more than naif of the 207 manufacturers who exhibited at the Exhibition were from Otago. They could not do much with nit prompt delivery. Mr H. Henderson described the serious difficulties of importers _ owing to the great delay in deliveries. The South Island did not get full advantage from steamer freights as they paid arbitrary freights. He instanced cases where cargo took forty-one days from Sydney instead of twelve days to the North Island, and another case where a Dunedin delivery was twenty-one days after the North Island.

Mr Steel (Otago Expansion League) dealt with the possibilities of developing tourist traffic, urging that subsidised services to Melbourne should call at Milford Sound at least four months in the year. The extra returns to the railways from tourists would produce a profit on the subsidy. If the Union Company could not see its way to provide a service, he suggested that the Government offer a subsidy to some other shipping line, and we would have two boats calling at the South Island. Mr H. H. Smith (Canterbury Chamber of Commerce) stated that the present system caused the tourist traffic to be confined almost wholly to the North Island. Ho heartily supported the request. Mr H. C. Campbell asked the Government to reinstate the South Island as a gateway to New Zealand commerce. The present service—allegedly a three-weekly one to Melbourne—was irregular. A connecting link from the Bluff to Australia would promote railway traffic. The Prime Minister; Nobody has yet told me what you want.

Mr Campbell: “We want a weekly service between Bluff and Melbourne each wav.” He added that Sir Charles Holdsworth had promised a deputation that when the war was over the weekly service, Bluff-I)unedin-Lyttclton-Wel-lington-Sydney, would be revived. If the Union Company did not find it paying they should be asked to withdraw and other means could quickly be provided.

“ Fifty years ago the southern services were ten times better than today,'” declared Sir Joseph Ward, who regarded it. as monstrous that fifty years had landed tiro South Island practically in the hackblocks, transhipments from Sydney forty-one days to land in the south'. It was characteristic of the dark ages. _ Southern people did not begrudge their share of the mail subsidies, and £40,000 annually for carrying mails across the straits; but they wanted fair treatment. The shipping companies were centring on Auckland and Wellington, hut such a concentration would not be tolerated with subsidised mail services in England and America. The Premier replied that the deputation had put its case concisely and in a Businesslike way, hut he did not agree with drawing a comparison between subsidised service; and intercolonial. because the first to complain if the foynor were cut out would bo the South Island. These express services from ’Frisco and Vancouver were for mails. There was no subsidy for cargo. Sir J. Ward: We stipulated in the contracts for scheduled cargo rates. Mr f/)ates, continuing: Yon are asking for a better service and whether the Government is prepared to pay a subsidy. My own impression about a subsidy is that I don’t feel enthusiastic, but there is no doubt that if we can in some manner bring the South Island in closer touch with Australia and from both ends of New Zealand one could readily see the advantage to the whole dominion.” Many people had no time to visit the south because their journey did not fit with outgoing ships. Ho would be glad to go into the whole question and see how far the Government could go, and then get into communication with those who had made the representations. He also wanted to go carefully into the question whether a weekly service was justified, and would like to see some figures and what the future would hold out.

Mr Campbell: Trade has been killed by lack of transport. Mr Coates added that it would he possible, if the figures provided, to see whether the service would produce a loss and if it would bo heavy. The Government recognised the position it had drifted into in regard to the South Island, and if it could bring about a better arrangement to bring Melbourne and the South Island into closer communication with a regular service it would do all it possibly could. Ho would not deal definitely at that moment with the subsidy, because he had to bo convinced that the subsidy principle was the soundest one.