"MORE MAIL MYSTERIES."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13602, 22 November 1907, Page 7

"MORE MAIL MYSTERIES."

THE NEW SAN FRANCISCO . SERVICE. '['FROM OUII OWN CORRESPONDENT.] :'-.'.'• Londox, October. 11. "Quietly and unobtrusively after a lapse of several months the mail service to New; Zealand via the westward route has come into operation again," says the British Australasian, "the sole public announcement of the resumption, being hidden away on a back page of the monthly Post Office Guide. A strange feature of the new service is that its very existence is wrapped in. mystery. At the General Post Office the officials have heard of it, but are unable to say how it arose, or when, "or why. All that they can state is thatsome'unknown shipping firm has in some mysterious manner arranged with the Government of some country or' other to carry the mails. 'The British-Australasian representative was also vouchsafed the name of some mystical shipping "firm''apparently unknown in shipping circles, and of a vessel • which, it may interest the authorities to know, is.at present/plying in South African waters. '.-."'-.

"At the New Zealand office in London they were equally in the dark, and beyond having received a notification from the Post Office that .there was such a mail service, they ' confessed themselves entirely ignorant of its origin. All that they could say with any degree of certainty was that the New Zealand Government had not effected the arrangement, or the High Commissioner would have received official notification of the fact from his Govenunent.

"By dint of much perseverance and-as-siduous following' tip of .clues, we have succeeded," continues the British Australasian; ' in tracking to earth the company which has. undertaken the conveyance -of the mails and the Government; which is responsible for tho resumption of the service. It appears that Messrs. Andrew Weir, the well-known shipping firm, whose London offices are in Lloyd's Avenue, have entered into an arrangement with the American Government for the conveyance of mails by their line of cargo steamers . between San Francisco and Auckland. The service, which has been already in operation since August 30, is to run at 28-day intervale, and.the particular 'benefit it confers ou correspondents with New Zealand, resident in England, lies in the fact that the outward despatch of mails from Loudon takes place on a • Saturday. Thus correspondents will once a month have an additional day ofgrace for completing their correspondence to New Zealand. The total time occupied m; transit from London to Auckland is 38 days, which is exactly the same as the estimated time of the passage by the eastward route." ... ■ ■•;■'■' •

_ ,-What puzzles people .-it this end is to imagine how the Post Office authorities could■-•; possibly have been persuaded '■ to: send any mails at all by-such' a "service" winch does not- even profess to deliver them. 111-less than, 38 days, whereas even by the Suez route, without any regular connection to New: Zealand, they have often been delivered in 35 and*36 : days while delivery in- 29 or 30 days via San Francisco has long;been■ an accomplished