BLUFF-MELBOURNE SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20900, 16 June 1931, Page 8

BLUFF-MELBOURNE SERVICE.

The determination of the Government to pay a subsidy for a steamer service between Otago and Melbourne, regardless of the circumstances, has been reaffirmed by the Minister of Internal Affairs, who has informed the Bluff Borough Council (hat the Government had provided him with the necessary means to ensure a regular service, to commence in the early spring. In association with tlie previous history of this extravagant proposition, the Minister's statement exposes the insincerity of the Government's professions of economy. When the Government, in fulfilment of one of the few electioneering promises for which it has shown any zeal, invited tenders for a service by two steamers, it ignored the existence of a regular service by a passenger steamer and two cargo vessels. Eventually, it undertook to pay an annual subsidy of £.'56,000 for a second steamer; that commitment lapsed owing to the wreck of the Manuka before the Maheno en-

tcred the service, and the latter maintained the original itinerary during last summer without a subsidy. There is no suggestion now in .Air. Perrelle's statement of more than one steamer, so that in effect the Government has authorised him to promise a subsidy for a steamer service which was formerly maintained without any assistance from the State, and, but for the Government's interference, would have been continued as long as there was sufficient traffic to warrant it. The pretence that the service is necessary for the carriage of mails has been abandoned, for the negotiations arc being conducted by the Minister of Internal Affairs and not by the Postmaster-General, though the subsidy is charged against the Post Office. The pretence that the service is designed to induce tourist traffic, with which Mr. Perrelle is concerned, is equally futile, for all the tourist traffic that is likely to come from Australia can easily bo carried by the existing services. The scheme is simply another illustration of the pertinacity with which j the Government pursues any plan for the gratification of its friends in the South Island, with complete disregard of the effect upon the public finances and the oppressed taxpayers of the rest of the country.