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Otago Daily Times, Issue 11934, 7 January 1901, Page 4

Simultaneously with the arrival in the colony of the first of the steamers of the American line which has secured the contract- for the ensuing year for the conveyance of the mails by the San Francisco route has come the announcement that the Union Steam Ship Company, having been jockeyed out of the • San Francisco service, lias acquired an interest in the Vancouver . service.' The effect of the co-operation of the Union Steam Ship Company with the' New Zealand Shipping; Company in the performance of this latter service will be that it v.II be possible to make it three-weekly instead < of, as at present, four-weekly. When that- change is effected the service will be in all probability of as great value to the colony as the San Francisco service now is. For«commercial and Imperial - reasori

it will be a superior "service; and'upon all grounds, if there should be a question of competition between the San Fran- 1 cisco and Vancouver for, the support of the colonial Governments, the Vancouver service is undoubtedly that which should he favoured. The colonies •have for the time being been, shut down to the acceptance of a foreign service' for the conveyance of their mails. The navigation laws of the United States made it impossible, as Mr George 'M'Lean pointed out at Auckland on iFriday last, for tho Union Steam Ship Company to continue in tlte San .Francisco mail service. Mr M'Lean might have added that even had the navigation laws, which' are aimed at excluding all Vessels that are not on the American register from participation in the benefits of trade between American ports, not been in existence, the terms upon which the United States Government subsidises the mail service between San Francisco .and Australasia precluded any line which was not absolutely American fronjr the. chance of carrying the mails. ' And Mr M'Lean has complete foundation for the complaint 'he made that the New Zealand Government did nothing to help tho • Union Steam Ship Company in order to prevent the Sail Francisco service from falling into tlie hands of a foreign company. If the Union Company had received any encouragement from the Government- it might have been relied ■upon to place larger vessels in the running, and to have provided a faster service. But -the conditions under which the company latterly supplied "the service offered no guarantee of the continuity of its contract suoh as would have justified it iu embarking upon a heavy expenditure in the construction of new and costly steamers: a renewal of its contract from year to year was all that the Government granted it. The contract with Messrs Spreckels Bros', company, however, is also for a period of a year only; and if the companies providing the Vancouver service can offer a satisfactory assurance of their ability to supply a service as advantageous to the colony as the San Francisco service is we greatly mistake the temper of the colony if it does not insist upon a preference being given at the termination of the present contract to the all-British service instead I .of to a Eervice that is thoroughly anti-British.