TRANS-AMERICAN MAIL.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 149, 25 June 1908, Page 3

TRANS-AMERICAN MAIL.

NEW ZEALAND IN 18 DAYS!

- . LONDON, May 8. . Mi1 E. Fondi Wright has just returned from Mexico . and North America, where he has been investigating possibilities of new and shorter mail routes to New Zealand. The one Specially in view on the present occasion has its Atlantic port, at New York, and its Pacific outlet arfc Topolobampo or Guaymas. Mr Wright interviewed representatives of the American railway companies that would serve this route, and he forwards me some notes. He says:— "On my way to London I stayed a Week in Kansas City, and had a long interview with the officials of the Kansas City, Mexico, and Orient Railroad, and obtained valuable \ information. Their road will not, however, he in running order under three years. This important point I could not obtain until I had had a private interview. Mexico will give a subsidy to this road —just what amount I do not know at

present. There is, however, plenty of coal on the road that can be delivered at about 16s per ton, and it is consideredi that theiie will be an ample supply of oil for iuel obtained east of Chibuabua in land adjoining the railway. "The German American §t|amship Company has a contract with the Orient Railroad by which it is agreed that ail passengers or goods not otherwise directed must be booked for the German American line of steamers;' Further, the Orient Railroad is very anxious to develop the said line of steamers, so much so that I was asked if the German-American Company put on fa§t steamers would they be subsidised? I said certainly not, as the British Empire was not going to subsidise ' German steamers any more than Germany would subsidise British steamers. , ■ "The Orient Railroad Company admit that by making up a special tram for passengers and mails it could be run between Topolobampo and Kanssas City, or vice versa, a distance of 1660 miles, in 40 hours.) In the same way the distance between Kansas City and Chicago* a distance of 458 miles by the Santa Fe road, can be ruivin 10 hours, and the distance from .Chicago to New York is 960 miles over the New York Central, the journey being covered in 18 hours, or a total distance of 3078 miles in 68 hours-— or, say, 72 hours, or three days, allowing for delays. The mails/ 5 continues Mr Fondi ■Wright* "are now delivered between New York and London in six, days by the Lusitania or the sister ship,'or a distance of over 6000 miles—more tha%« half the _ distance between London and Auckland —in nine days. w / . _ "To prove that this is practical, I may mention,'' proceeds Mr Wright, '' that a gentleman a few weeks ago left London a,t 11 a.rti. oh one Saturday and he arrived in Kansas City the next Saturday in time to have dinner with friends at 8 p.m. Add another 40 hours to reach Topolobampo, and you-have exactly 9 days 1 h.our; and that is without any special1 arrangement. So it just rests with Australasia as to what time the mails are delivered in Sydney. . "If the Topolobampo service were never to conic into existence, there is still another very nearly as good, for at Guaytoas (pronounced. Ymus) there is a railway connecting with the Southern Pacific at Benson.. This railway company is just as anxious to see a steamer service as is the Orient railroad. There is no prospect of obtaining cheap; oil at this point for fuel, but I have it on very good authority that a railway will be built r into a coalfield at this point mx six months; the field would be of great area; in f actj J am told that MrHarriman, the American railway magnate, has from 250,000 to 300,000 acres of this field, which is said to be semi-antracite, and the best coal in '] America. "The importance of this will be unrderstood," proceeds' Mr Wright,* "when I tell you that three-quarters of a ton oT this semi-anthracite is[ said to % be equal to one ton and a quarter of the best bituminous. On the same authority I state that Mr Harriman does not control the whole field, and that there are ohers who have areas of the same field. The seam, I understand, 4s 40ft thick, about 100 ft below the surface, and that, owing to cheap Mexican labdur, it can be put on board for about,Bs.-per t<f>n. "I would say, in confclusion, it is certain in the Jiear future that, if the British Empire-does not put on an ■efficient line of steamersjfrom America to Australasia, either the GermanAmerican Steamship Company or the Southern Pacific Railroad (which now has a line of steamers of about 10,000 tons each running from America to the Orient^) will put on a line of steamers to New Zealand and Australia. If this, is done it will be equivalent to what has been done, by Japan in wiping out the P. and 0. in the East. This is, as far as I can see, the aim of the Little Englander, but not of those of • the British Empire who wish to follow in the foot)steps of their forefathers who made the Empire what it is," A MOTHER'S RECOMMENDATION. Mrs Mary Gray, Wagonga (N.S.W.), writes: — "Chamberlain's Cough Remedy has a splendid reputation in this district, and I know of many cases where acute Croup and Bronchitis have been cured. I had been a suffereT from Bronchial Asthma for many years, and riever found any treatment that would relieve me, until I commenced taking Chamberlain's Cough Remedy, and that' completely cured me. It has never failed to cure coughs or chest complaints among the members of my family. I always keep a bottle #of Chamberlain's' Cough Remedy in the house, and would advise all mothers to do likewise." For sale by J. Benning, Blenheim, and w. Syms,, Picton. When passing the Randwick racecourse, Sydney, on June 4th, the driver of a Coogee ti?am saw the figure of a man, lying across the rails. He endeavoured to pull up, but before he could do so, the tram had passed over ithe man. ; The front car was lifted with screw jacks, and the body, which was horribly mutilated, was got out. !It was subsequently; identified as being that of Arthur McEwan, a cattle drover, who resided at Rose Street, Darlington. I Stephen Castro, a coloured pearling diver, cleared away from Port Darwin with Selina Tye, the young halfcaste daughter of a well-known Chinese resident. Castro had come in from the pearling grounds only the day previously, and when the girl, the diver, and a lugger disappeared suddenly it was suspected that it was a case of abduction. An oil launch, with the father of the girl, the owner of the missing lugger, and a policeman on board, went in pursuit, and found the lugger at anchor in Shoal Bay. The missing girl was on board, and Castro, who was placed under arrest, was subsequently committed for trial for abduction. The father and mother swore that the girl was under sixteen years of age.