THE PACIFIC MAIL ROUTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13845, 3 September 1908, Page 4

THE PACIFIC MAIL ROUTES.

'/ - - It was announced in our cable messages yesterday that the. De-puty-Postmaster-General of the Dominion "of Canada is coming to Australia as a Commissioner in the interest of the "All Red" mail scheme. In New Zealand, at. any rate, Mr. Coulter may be assured of a warm welcome from our own Post-master-General, and of a very sympathetic desire to co-operate in the matter to the fullest of our power. For our mail; services at the pre-, sent time are deplorably .beneath criticism, and some very active steps will have to be taken if we. are to emerge from this abyss of postal disabilities into which we have fallen, and to re-establish our Homeward mails upon the high level of a generation ago. But -while we trust the public will heartily 'support Sir Joseph Ward's desire to participate' in the "All Bed" route, we are confident that our Prime Minister will agree with us that we should; not pin i our hopes only on 'Canada. Wei ought to have not only a direct and fast Vancouver < mail, but a direct; and fast 'Frisco mail. The latter. we had for many years, and averagely we found it all that a mail service could be reasonably expected to be. If the Washington Government is authorised-by Congress to offer a first-class subsidy, the 'Frisco mail, with New Zealand's assistance, may speedily be re-established upon, its old footing, for Congress is said to be strongly inclined to reconsider the decision of some months ago, when it declined to accede to the Presidential mail proposals> while in addition there is a strong probability that the American navigation laws will be suspended as between Hawaii and the United States. <With two such services we should be once again in a more favourable postal position, while we shall have, in addition, connection by great . liners with the populous North American Continent and the great "Appian Ways" of the Anglo-Saxon world.