'FRISCO MAIL SERVICE.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 228, 4 October 1901, Page 3

'FRISCO MAIL SERVICE.

SiTiECKLES’ MODEST DEMANDS

[By Telegraph -Press Association.] Wellington, last night

In the House of Representatives the greater part of the afternoon was occupied in answering a question in reply to Mr Witlieford, who inquired as to the position in regard to the San Francisco mail service.

Mr Ward said that the Sprcekles Company had submitted a proposal for a live years’ contract for £'20,5(52 per annum. The Cabinet considered this offer, and came to the conclusion that the sum was m excess of what the colony could afford to pav, and the offer was therefore declined. The Government offered, subject to the approval of the House, to pay £lf>,UOO per annum for three years’ service. but Mr Sprcekles had cabled refusing to entertain that offer. As soon as the proposals were formulated they would be submitted to the Ilause for consideration.

Til an able loading article on the ml- | vantages of the 'Frisco mail service, the { New Zealand llerabl concludes 1 11 Is it not mistaken policy to refuse to pay .IT,">,000 yearly lor a mail service that delivers our mails in d(» days, and places us in direct communication with the greatest lines of travel in the world, to repel such a service in which we may so cheaply be principals, and become practinliy subordinate parties to slower, interior, ! and circuitous routes For if we accept the terms offered us, which, compared to 1 what we have been glad to pay for less J frequent and less expeditious facilities, i are moderate indeed, we have at once the i right to make contract conditions. We 1 become not merely part controllers of the ! best mail service in the l’acitie, but we provide for live years’ unequalled conveniences for British and American tourists reaching our islands. The Oceanic stoamers arc among the finest atloat, arc built with especial reference to the passenger traffic which is bound to take advantage of this fast route to Australasia. As we have stated, they are all of 0000 | tons burden, and arc as luxuriously fitted as they arc swift. The (Tourse they follow brings"them directly through the tropics. Their American terminus is at the outlet of all the great railway routes which traverse the populous and interesting States of the kindred and English-speak-ing Republic. Only in the narrowest sense arc they " foreign." They tly an Anglo-Saxon tlag. They are owned by an Anglo-Saxon company. They are officered and crewed by Anglo-Saxon men. To regard them as foreign " while we regard Lascar-crewed steamers as British is an anomaly. Tourists will not so regard them, but will readily make use of them, knowing that for all practical purposes they are as English as anv steamers afloat. The operations of the American navigation laws, for which the Oceanic Company is in no way responsible. have slightly affected a single British ship. But we may well balance against this the fact that the operations

of American mail policy have placed within our reach a mail service and passenger conveniences which otherwise must have been unattainable. If we are j wise, our gain in the matter will be ; enormous. If we are unwise, we only ! injure ourselves, not merely by the waste of days and even weeks in mail transport, but by losing the tourist influx bound to result from magnificently improved means of transit. The tourist advantages alone are worth to the colony what the service will eventually cost us, for the difficulty has long been to start the stream of travel flowing freely New Zealandwards. Our natural wonders and exquisite scenery are sufficient to justify any reasonable expense in making them suitably known and pleasantly reached, while we must never forget that

the tourist class makes the best immigration agents we can get. From every point of view it is to the best interest of the colony to make the desired contract with the 'Frisco line, and we trust that Parliament will be patriotic enough and shrewd enough to authorise the Post-master-General to make it. Commercially it would he infinitely better to secure reciprocity with the United States, as suggested bv the Hon. Eugene E. Loud, than to cut ourselves away from them on a frivolous pretext.