THE ISLAND STEAMERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12643, 25 August 1904, Page 5

THE ISLAND STEAMERS.

INTENTIONS OF THE UNION S.S. COMPANY/ THE FRUIT TRADE. [BY -telegraph.— special cop.mspoxdp.kt.] Wellington, Wednesday. Is the House of Representatives to-day Mr. Mills (Commissioner of Trade and Customs), replying to Mr. Vile' request that Wellington be made the first and direct port of call for the steamers from the Cook Islands and Tahiti, said a contract existed at present between the Union Steamship Company and the Postal Department lor the conveyance of mails monthly between New Zealand, Rarotonga, and Tahiti, and a reply had just been received from the company, in which they say : " You may rely upon it that when the accommodation-house is availaole we shall supplement the efforts of the Government by offering inducements in the. way of accommodation and fares to the New Zealand people to visit the group, and if the result justifies it we shall not. be, slow to fix our services so ar to meet the requirements of the increased traffic." Under the circumstances, added the Minister, further consideration or the question had better stand over until the building has been completed.

Mr. Vile said he was more interested in the carriage of fruit than in tourist traffic to and from the Islands. He read a letter from a Wellington fruit merchant, complaining that on their time-table the Island steamer arrives in Auckland on Thursday, and the fruit had to be two days in Auckland, and did not reach Wellington till Tuesday. "It is evident," concluded the writer, "that Wellington should be nlade the distributing basis for the whole colony, as past records of delays through the transhipments at Auckland have had the effect of disastrously affecting the good sale of fruit in the Southern markets.'' The Auckland people, said Mr. Vile, had a service with Samoa and another with Fiji. They should be satisfied with that. Last year he voted for the San Francisco mail service, and in return he thought Auckland should give Wellington the Cook Islands fruit service.