THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9103, 11 July 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1888.

The determination on the part of certain Southern circles to suppress the San Francisco Mail Service is shown in the persistency with which facts and figures are twisted to sustain foregone conclusions. The incident narrated by our Wellington correspondent —in which, in a return obtained by Sir John Hall, light dues, bonuses, and costs of inter-provincial services to the amount of £5967, are totted up against the San Francisco Service, while omitted in the record of the Direct Mail Service, to the amount of £8000 admirably illustrates the kind of tactics employed, and leads to the suspicion that the official heads and officers of the Postal Department in Wellington are imbued with the Wellington spirit in respect to a service that appears to be the bete noir of the Wellington imagination. The thanks, not of Auckland only, but of New Zealand, are due to the member for Ponsonby, Mr. Peacock, for the indefatigable zeal he is showing in watching and thwarting these insidious attempts, and in bringing facts and figures bearing on the question into the light of day. Happily this is all that is required to defeat attempts which are the outcome of mere selfishness, and of a pitiful jealousy that is the disgrace of the colony. It 19, of course, possible that by sheer force of numbers the Southern influence may succeed in overmastering reason, but the stars in their courses seem to be fighting against the cabal.

The postal report for the year past has now been placed on the table of the House, and a brief synopsis of its purport appears in our telegraph columns. To a few items bearing on the relative merits of the rival ocean services wo desire, for the present to specially direct attention, and the force of them must be felt, wa should think, even by the most prejudiced partizan. A comparison is there instituted in the results that may be expected to follow in the event of the suppression of the San Francisco service, or in the event of the suppression of the Direct mail service. Three alternatives are there given. First : a four-weekly service with England by the direct steamers, the San Francis vice being stopped ;

that would give, it is alleged, a net profit on the mails of £2585. Second : a fortnightly service by the direct steamers, the San Francisco service being stopped that would give, it is estimated, a net loss on the mails of £5350. Third : A four-weekly mail by the San Francisco Service, the mails being no longer sent by the direct steamers ; that would give, it is said, a net profit on the mails of £14,754. Now, eliminating the second of these as showing a loss on the mails, as not being in the spirit of the prevalent universal desire for retrenchment, we may compare the four-weekly service of the Direct steamers and of the San Francisco line, in the event of only one of the services being continued. Placing the two services in this way on a level platform, and on equal terms, the one gives a profit of £2585, the other a profit of £14,754 Which of them, on the face of it, ought to be accepted ? Without considering the comparative merits of the two services in point of speed, which of them, on financial grounds, and in face of the demand for general retrenchment, should be chosen—the Direct Service with a profit of £2585, or the San Francisco with a profit of £14,754? Even if the advantages in point of speed were with the Direct Service, is there any honest man who, in the present admitted necessity for retrenchment, would say that it ought to be preferred 1 But what shall we say when the advantages are all the other way ? for, as shown by this Postal Report, mails by the direct boats have averaged 44 days in reaching our shores from England, while those by San Francisco we know reach our coasts in 35 ! It seems almost inconceivable that anyone professing to be actuated by public spirit should have the hardihood to raise his voice against a service nearly six times as profitable, and showing a gain in time of nine days in the receipt of mails.

Nor does this by any means exhaust the advantages on the side of the San Francisco Service, when making comparisons in view of only one service being maintained; for nobody that has been paying any attention to the mails in the past can fail to know how utterly delusive is the calculation of all the letters being sent by the Direct mails in the event of the San Francisco service being suspended. Why, for some time past the Direct mails have been anticipated by the Suez mails almost every time by about a fortnight at Auckland, and a week in the Southern parts of the colony. Can any one suppose for an instant that all the mails would go by that route ? Indeed, if the public were generally aware of the fact—of which a few are aware—that the mails of Suez are so much more rapid than those by the direct steamers, we question if anything but a very small percentage of letters now travelling by the Direct mails would go that way. No steps have been taken by the postal authorities to impress that fact on the public ; on the contrary, and not unreasonably, special efforts have been made to have letters transmitted by our own subsidised service; but if there were no rapid service such as that by San Francisco subsidised, the public would sooner or later realise the fact, and by far the larger portion of letters would come and go by Australia. Of course the Government might impose a fine on such letters, but such an interference with the will of the people would not be tolerated, and the public would not submit to being compelled to send or receive their letters by a slow service, when a week or a fortnight could be gained by the way of Australia and Suez. The result would be that all the postages on the letters sent by Australia >would "go to the Australian service, and instead of showing a profit of two or three thousand pounds, the Direct service would show an enormous loss. It is true it might be said that all the letters would not go by San Francisco, in the event of the direct mails being stopped; but that would only be felt in respect of the mails starting midway between the San Francisco mail days, for as this service is the quickest of all the services by which England and the Antipodes are connected, it would necessarily have the preference ; whereas, in the case of the direct steamers, letters posted on the very day of the departure of the steamers would have a speedier passage by another route. If the question of the rival services is only settled on its merits, there can be no doubt whatever as to the result of comparison. But, unfortunately, the interests concerned are very powerful in the South, and provincial jealousies are very keen, and when self the wavering balance draws," 'tis rarely right adjusted.