OCEAN MAIL SERVICES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13888, 27 April 1907, Page 9

OCEAN MAIL SERVICES.

It would be little short of remarkable if tho breakdown of the San Francisco mail service did not letd to the establishment of the Canadian service on a mush improved La.sis. While the CaliJoruian sen'ice, spoon-fed 011 both sides of tho Pacific, mis in operation the ■Vancouver line suffered' from neglect on the part of colonics which might reasonably have, been expected to be swayed by sentiment and by patriotic considerations more largely than they were. The combination which supplies tho Vancouver service has not received from the Governments that measure of encouragement which would have induced it to place larger and faster steamera in the running. But the withdrawal of tho Oceanic Steamship Company's steamers from the Californian route has unquestionably created an opportunity for the development of the Vancouver service .which, as a Canadian visitor to Australia has just said, it would be suicidal for British lines to ignore. There Ls sound reason, also, in the vim 1 expressed by the Sydney Morning Herald that there is a certain duty cast upon the colonial Governments in the existing situation: tliey must be prepared to afford tho chip-owners their sympathy and support. So far as the companies which are carrying 011 the Vancouver service at t-lio present time are concerned, they arc .apparently willing and' ready to take tho progressive measures that are called for by the altered conditions. New steamers of the type that will be required aro not produced at short notice, but, it is to bo gathered froin our cable news from 1 Australia, the companieshave intimated to the Federal Government that they will undertake, in consideration of an extension of their contract for a period of nine, months from July next, to replace the steamers at present engaged in the contract by new steamers of the specified standard with such expedition as will ensure that an entirely new fleet shall be employed in two years' time. With tho employment of modern turbine steamers tho duration of the voyage between Vancouver and Auckland or Brisbimc, whichever may bo the first and the final port of call, may be so reduced as to overcome the objections that have been raised to the use of the line for mail purposes. And, from the point of view of the companies, the trade prospects—heightened, we, hope, by thd diffusion, through the instrumentality of the excellent Canadian display at the rccent Exhibition, of wider knowlodgo respecting tho natural resources and industries of tho J Dominion—should bo sufficiently satisfactory as, with the help of the mail subsidies, to roilder the expenditure involved in the improvement of the srrvioo quite remunerative. Besides, as has boon pointed out, a trade connection with San Francisco may readily be maintained by the utilisation of the ■Vancouver route. Anyhow a singularly favourable opportunity is now presented for the establishment of a powerful fAll Red" service, and for various reasons it ii to be hoped that tho chance will bo eagerly seized and utilised.