AN UNRIVALLED MAIL ROUTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12281, 27 May 1903, Page 4

AN UNRIVALLED MAIL ROUTE.

So continuously recurrent is the evidence that the 'Frifco mail provided the only practicable mail route between New Zealand and the United Kingdom—if time is to count at all in the matterthat it is hardly pos« sible to call public attention to every corroborative instance. To do this would require comment upon every, British mail delivery, whether vis 'Frisco or via Suez. The present mail situation is not in any way ex« ceptional, and we only notice it to remind the public of the great in* terest we have in the maintenance and improvement of the Oceanic service. The last English mail arrived in Auckland on the steamer a fortnight ago last Monday, May 11,. when letters from London to April, 11 were landed. The English mail which left London on May 2, virj 'Frisco, is due here on Tuesday nexfcj. So much for the 'Frisco route, which' we will proceed to compare with the Suez. The Suez mails which left London on April 17 and 24 have not) yet reached Auckland, and are not! likely to do so until the end of thai • week. Starting a fortnight before! the incoming three-weekly 'Frisco' 1 mail, the Suez mail only reaches us, two or three days ahead of it. A'j fortnightly 'Frisco service would, make any and every Suez mail utterly worthless to the colony. To assume that there is any equation in the postal advantages accruing to us from the Suez and 'Frisco routes respectively is preposterous. There is only one mail which it is worth' our while to patronise. It is the duty of the Government to make the best use of the 'Frisco service and to endeavour to complete the advantage gained from it by securing fortnightly instead of three-weekly steamers on that run.