TEE VANCOUVER SERVICE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11938, 11 January 1901, Page 5

TEE VANCOUVER SERVICE.

THE HON: MR WARD'S VIEWS. (From Our. Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, January 10. The Hon. Mr Ward, referring to the Vancouver services, says that (lonl)tless an effort- will he made to get the line to call at New Zealand once more now the Union Company have taken an interest in it. In his opinion we require both the San Francisco and the Vancouver service, but if New Zealand is included in the Vancouver service it would necessitate the dropping of Queensland if anything like a speedy mail service is to be' provided. The subsidy paid for the Vancouver service by Canada, Queensland, and New Soiith Wales is in round figures about. £40,000 a year, and the contract does not expire until 1902. llr Ward says he has not yet been approached on the subject, and it is a little difficult to say what might be done in regard to such a very important matter beyond in a general' Wily stating that the Government favours connection with Vancouver, but if an enormously high subsidy is required to bring it about the matter would require serious consideration. "In any case," he said, " I am glad to see that tiie Union Company has got into that service with its steamers. The exclusion .of the company from the San Francisco service was a matter that we all regretted. If reasonable terms are .proposed I have no doubt the Government would favourably consider them, but at the same time I think we should maintain the San Francisco service notwithstanding the fact that the navigation laws of the United States do not allotv our own steamers being employed in that service. A mail and passenger connection, to say nothing of a slowly developing cargo business, between Now Zealand and a great continent like America ought riot to be lightly cast aside even upon sentimertal grounds, and, speaking for myself, I should be prepared to support both 'services. In fact, the more shipping services we have the better for the publv. and the colony generally." There is, Mr Ward thinks, bound to be a strong rivalry between the two lines, and the fact of such evident, life being put into the Vancouver service by the enterprising Union Company joining it,points to the cossibility of an improved service by both routes. As this colony grows in popularity with the tourists of the old world he thinks there is no reason why both lines should not be maintained to the advantage of the shipowners, and generally to the benefit of the colony.

THE UNION COMPANY AND THE VANCOUVER SERVICE. As has already been announced, the Union Steam Ship Company lias acquired a halfinterest in tho Canadian-Australian mail service. In pursuance of the arrangements that have been arrived at between the New Zealand Shipping Company and the Union Company, now partner? in that service, the steamer Moana will shortly enter the Vancouver running, leaving. Sydney in April. The question of making the service a tlil'eeweokly one, instead of monthly, as at present, is already under consideration; and should such arrangements lie completed as will warrant the companies in adopting that ccurse, four steamerF—the Moana, Aorangi, Miowcra, and Warrimoo—will be engaged in it. In tho meantime, however,, the Moana will merely replace the Warrimoo in the service, (lie latter vessel being transferred to tho intercolonial trade. The futuro developof. the service ahd the possibility of including in it a port of call in New Zealand have not yet been fully considered. The settlement of the latter point will depend entirely upon the character of the assistance in the shape of a subsidy which the Parliament of this colony may be disposed to grant the line._ An alternative suggestion to the extension of tho service from Australia to New Zealand is to adopt once moro the plan under which .the steamers touched at Fiji. 111 the course of the voyage between Brisbane and Honolulu, and to establish a branch service between New Zealand and Fiji. That matter has, however, as we have said, not yet been fully discussed. The Union Company will probably take over tho management in Sydney of the Vancouver service in April, up till which lime it will continue to act as general agents of the Oceanic Company, which supplies the San Francisco servicc. Mr Spreckels, who is expected to arrive in the colonics from America in March or April, was anxious that the Tmmn Company should continue to act as agents for his company throughout the colonies. hut after it takes tip the management of tho Vancouver service this will not be possible. Naturally the directors and officers of the Union Company view with considerable regret the final severance of their connection with the San Frnncisco trade, which commenced, in conjunction witli the Oceanic Company, 15 years ago. The connection has been an exceedingly pleasant one for the company, and the most cordial business relations were preserved throughout with Messrs Spreckels Bros. The New Zealand Shipping Company and the Union Steam Ship Company are confident that the large and increasing interest which is taken in the maintenance of all-British routes—an interest that will probably bp stimulated by the establishment of the Australian Commonwealth—will be reflected in a rapid development of the passehger trade by the Vancouver route. They look forward to the substitution of larger and faster steamers for the present boats at, the termination, two years liertce, of their existing. Contract with the Australian Internments. The employment of the Moana in the Vancouver service necessitates the .abandonment of the Union Company's proposal to despatch her next winter on an excursion to the tropics, the plan having been to send her as far as Singapore. The company will probahly arrange instead'for an excursion by theWaikare to the South Sea Islands.