EXPENSIVE MAIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20116, 29 November 1928, Page 10

EXPENSIVE MAIL.

TWO BAGS COST £2866.

DELIVERY FROM AMERICA. COMPANY'S NEW CONTRACT. What must be the most expensive mail matter ever brought to New Zealand was delivered to the postal authorities at Auckland yesterday, when the steamer Golden Cloud arrived from Los Angeles. Tho vessel brought two bags of letters, and for their carriage across tho Pacific Ocean the owners, the Oceanic and Oriental Navigation Company, receive £2866 from tho American Government, or £1433 a bag. The Golden Cloud is tho second of tho company's steamers to deliver mail from Los Angeles at Auckland under a new contract entered into with tho American Government last September. Tho subsidy is at the rate of 10s a nautical mile, and tho contract seems to bo proving very expensive, for, toward tho end of last month, tho Golden Bear brought only 67 bags of mail to .Auckland from LO3 Angeles. These were delivered at a cost of about £43 a bag.

Cargo steamers between America and New Zealand always carry mail if required, but at a poundage rate, ac-, cording to the weight of tho mail. Had tho two hags brought by tho Golden Cloud yesterday been carried on this basis, tho total cost would have been only a few shillings. Under tho contract, tho company's steamers leave Los Angeles for Auckland on the first of each month, tho vessels occupying an average of about 26 days on the voyage. Tho Golden Cloud was 28 days on the voyage. The Niagara, which is due at Auckland from Vancouver next Monday with 604 bags of English and American mail, left Canada on November 14. Her time for the trip will bo nine days less than that occupied by tho Golden Cloud. The Golden Cloud and other steamers were recently taken over from tho American Government, and were all renamed with the prefix Golden. How much the fleet will bo utilised in tho carriage of mail to New Zealand is not certain, although it is understood moro use will bo made of these vessels as time goes on. Tho new contract is no concern of tho New Zealand Government, which does not contribute toward payments made to the company. Apart from the mail, the Golden Oloud brought a valuable cargo of lumber totalling over 2,000,000 ft. She carried a deck cargo of 935,000 ft., a record for any boat which has ever .entered Auckland, and also stated to be one of the largest deel* cargoes of timber to leave an American port. Huge logs were piled 18ft. above the after-deck, being securely tied down with stout chains. A total of 660,000 ft. will be unloaded at Auckland.