SOUTH SHIPPING SERVICES

Evening Star, Issue 19327, 13 August 1926, Page 2

SOUTH SHIPPING SERVICES

THE RIGHT TO GUARAHTEE BENEFIT TO WHOLE DOUINIOH [Special to the ‘Stab.’] CHRISTCHURCH, August 13, In an editorial on South Island shipping, the ‘ Press ’ to-day says: “ There was some very frank speaking by members of the deputation which waited on the Prime Minister yesterday to ask for better shipping services to the South Island, especially by the representatives of Dunedin. Unfortunately it is not nearly so easy to name the remedy as to establish the hardship, and for that reason the Prime Minister cannot be blamed for refusing to commit himself without further investigation; but wo are sure it is safe to say that his investigation will be prompt and thorough. The South Island is not so unreasonable as to expect any shipping company to serve it for other than economic reasons, or the Government to bestir itself merely for political reasons. It is quite well aware that when trade has been stifled or neglected for a period of years it cannot be revived again without temporary loss, and it does not therefore suppose that a weekly service to and from Melbourne could bo instituted without some kind of guarantee, but in asking for this guarantee it asks for something that would ultimately be profitable to tho whole dominion, and especially profitable to the South Island railways, which at their southern extremity now run to a blind end. “It is ridiculous also to suggest that it is impossible in 1926 to give the South Island tho conveniences it enjoyed thirty, forty, or oven fifty years ago. It is, indeed, almost impossible to think of a time when goods took more than forty-one days to como from Melbourne to Dunedin, whether by act of God or by act of a shipping company; and, although goods do not often take so long as that, they take so very much longer than they should take that progress under such conditions is impossible. It is also an almost deliberate piece of national stupidity to keep the South Island a blind end for tourists. ’