HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 298, 18 December 1909, Page 2

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

"The House met at 10 a.m. OCEAN MAIL SERVICES. in Committee of Supply,The PRIME MINISTER made a statement regarding : ocean mail ■ services t giving figures showing the expenditure and receipts in connection with the weekly service via Suezi The Union and Huddart-Parker Companies received a joint subsidy of £15,000, but after deducting postages, etc., the net cost.of the service was £3600 a year. There was also a four-weekly service via Vancouver which cost £1414, and a five-weekly service via San Francisco which cost £1000. Negotiations were proceeding with the Canadian and Australian Governments with a view toniak- | ing Auckland & port of call for the Vancouver steamers. " He hoped to receive their decision shortly. .This service would bring Auckland within 30 or 31 days of London.. ; Attempts were being made to establish aser-, vice from Auckland to San Francisco, hut as no subsidy was now being granted there was no possibility of any company's taking up this service. However, it was almost certain that the United States Congress would pass the Shipping, Subsidy Bill,. in which case steamers would run to Auckland via Honolulu. Be hoped that such a service would be soon running. It was intended to maintain the present: five-weekly service to Tahiti so long as the Mariposa was running^ but this was only a temporary arrangement. He considered that the Dominion should endeavour ;• to obtain a service via Suez which would call iat the chief New Zealand pbris. The cost of tljis would not be very gfeat ?> and the service would be well worth it.. Postages on the various" services amounted £19,4^ and the cost; to -between £27,000 a"M;;:£2Bio(kv - .- ■■■, ,■■- ■ ..: ... ■ ■ Mr GLOVER moved to reduce the item £3500, cost of Island service from Wellington ;to Raratonga, by £1000, as »n i indidation that it was 4esirable 'to discontinue this* service -owing to its excessive cost. A service could' be maintained from Auckland at a cost of £1250 as against £70u0, the cost of the Wellington-Tahiti service.

Mr Herduaan asked if it was a fact that there was no Union steamer ready to convey mails from Adelaide direct to New Zealand. If so, this should be remedied. In regard to the port of call for the mail service, this .must be regarded from a national and not a local point of view. Mr MASSEY expressed; doubts as io the possibility of the subsidy on the San Francisco service being rejiewed. He quite agreed with the Prime Minister's suggestion that it was desirable that the Dominion should arrange for a direct service via Suez. The mail services ought to be brought qp-to-date, and rendered more satisfactory than they had been ,for som-e time past. Sir Joseph WARD, in replying to Mr Herdman, said that, it would be impossible to alter the running of the mail-boats from Australia, as to «do so would mean an outlay of £15,----000 per year. For £8000 a year it would be possible to have *a combined service connecting with Wellington and Auckland from Fiji, and Auckland would get the benefit of the Vancouver service. In this way a better service would be obtained by -degrees. The Government proposals were sound and businesslike. He believed in the '"All-Red" service, but considered that there should be an' alternate service. He had formerly arranged for the Vancouver service to call at Wellington, but this had.; teen opposed by Wellington merchants, with the result that the benefits of the service had been lost. Considerable discussion followed, which chiefly centred round the statement of Sir Joseph Ward that in 1895 he had, as Postmaster-General, proposed an agreement for the Vancouver steamers calling at Wellington, but that this proposal bad been' defeated owing_ to Wellington merr cantile opposition, and the service had been availed of by Queensland. Mr T. E. TAYLOR read correspondence bearing out the statements of -the Prime Minister, to whom he paid a, tribute for his good work as Post-master-General. Had the proposals in connection with the Vancouver I>oats been carried out our mail service to-day would have been a Cana--clian one, and the "All-Red" route would have been Piven effect to. Mr said that the Union Conipany were becoming a taxing machine on ihe Dominion, and he hoped that its would be largely reduced

in ( the near future' ■by State: ieiiter'■j&ii&f espe>cja]ly by completitigv the j-axfeay "sys-tiem, with': a>i State ferry between Wellington and Lyttelton. A motion by Mr Gloyer to reduce the post and mail services (£67,000) by £1 was defeated by 48 to 9. The House then adjourned for lunch.