THE SAN FRANCISCO SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10111, 21 April 1896, Page 4

THE SAN FRANCISCO SERVICE.

The trotting-out of the San Francisco service at Captain Russell's meeting was a weak piece of strategy, for everybody knows that the real opponents of that service have been Mr. Ward and his Ministry. They tried to burst it up by

diverting the funds necessary for its maintenance to a useless and impracticable service by Vancouver, a service which some of the Ministerial organs also supported, and one which would in all probability have had its New Zealand port of arrival or terminus at Wellington. There was a prospect presented that the two services would

have been continued, but no one seriously indulged the expectation that the colony would have borne the extraordinary and uncalled for expenditure of continuing two rival services across the Pacific, with the Suez services supplementing the facilities for communication with Europe; while the tone of Mr. Ward's advocacy of the Vancouver route, and the more liberal terms that were contemplated in connection with it, clearly indicated the step-motherly treatment that wouid be given to the rival service by San Francisco. No more subtle blow was ever aimed at the

San Francisco service than that contemplated subsidy to an additional line

of steamers to run in a trade that is barely sufficient tomaintainoneline; and had the Vancouver service been pressed and accepted, there can be little doubt that sooner or later—with the subsidy of £25,000 a year from Canada, £10,000 a year from New South Wales, and a similar if not a larger amount from New Zealand—it would have unfairly and dangerously handicapped a service which has for so many years, and with so entire satisfaction to the terms of its engagement, faithfully done the work of this colony. The Government has refused to sanction a seven years' contract to the San Francisco service, although three new boats, with all the modern improvements, and of great speed, were offered by the contractors at no increased cost to the colony incident which shows pretty clearly that it was not intended to continue the San Francisco service permanently, if Mr. Ward and his friends had had their way. Captain Russell has not opposed the San Francisco service, but is strongly in favour of it, and only suggested the terminus alterations, because of the grievance felt by Hawke's Bay, in letters having been sometimes delivered in Sydney before the mails by the same boat had been delivered at Napier. In face of such blundering, the people of Auckland or of anywhere else, if similarly affected, would have been equally indignant, and these lapses too were owing to the stupid administration of the Government. The San Francisco service costs us little, the American

Government gives some £12,000 a year of work in connection with it, the benefit of which is Rained by our post office, and the service would be found invaluable in the event of European war, when the mails carried under the American flag would be safe from molestation. As it is very well understood that the same insidious attempt will be made in the coming session by Mr. Ward to undermine the San Francisco service by endeavouring to build up a rival service by Vancouver, it is to be hoped that the representatives of this district will be on the alert, and that the representatives of the whole of the colony, which has been so faithfully served, will see to it that the blow aimed by Mr. Ward at the San Francisco service will be averted again as it was in the session past, - .