THE VANCOUVER MAIL SERVICE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14087, 16 December 1907, Page 4

THE VANCOUVER MAIL SERVICE.

The announcement which was contained in our cable messages in Saturday's issue tliafc the Canadian subsidy to the Vancouver mail service is to be discontinued has naturally caused some surprise, as not only has there been no hint of the probability of any such action being taken, but the Government of the Dominion is a warm advocate of the maintenance and improvement of the "All lied" system. Moreover, a fresh contract providing for a two years' renewal of the existing arrangement, which expires in July next, was signed while the managing director of the Union Steam Ship Company, tho contractor for tho service, was in England in the earlier part of this year. In the circumstances the present action of the Canadian Government is rather singular, if, indeed, the fact that the' Estimates of expenditure of the Dominion contain no vote for the service is correctly to be interpreted as an intimation of tho proposed withdrawal of- the subsidy. As Canada provides more than one'-lialf of the total subsidies that, am paid in respect of the service, it may be doubtful whether, in default of an increase of the subsidies from other sources to such an amount as would make good the losm to the contracting company of the Canadian subvention, tho withdrawal of the latter sum might not actually involve the cessation of the service. But it would be distinctly inconsistent with the policy of Canada to force such a result a.s that. In..the .Dominion its-elf the discontinuance of the subsidy has been construed in some quarters as an act of retaliation upon the proposal of the Commonwealth Government of a tariff which belies tho earnest protestations offered by the Federal Ministers at the Imperial Conference of their anxiety to afford genuine and' valuable trade preferences to British communities. And it is quite likely that the severely protective character of the Australian tariff may so restrict the possibilities of the development of Canadian trade in the Commonwealth as to cause the Dominion Government to be sceptical regarding the commercial advantages to be secured hy Canada through the subsidising of a cargo and mail service between Vancouver and Sydney. On the other hand, it would, as the Ottawa' correspondent of The Times points out, he absurd for Canada to retaliate when Mr Deakin had promised to negotiate for better trade arrangements after the settlement of the Australian tariff, which has now been passed by the Federal House of Representatives. Moreover, the existing Service constitutes, 111 a form which, though admittedly susceptible of improvement, is by no means inefficient, the class of mailcarrying service that is deemed by Canada to bo deserving of handsomely liberal support from the Governments of the countries interested. Consequently it will be singular if it should he jeopardised at the present time through an act of the Canadian Administration, the more especially' siiice there is 110 immediate prospect of its being replaced by tho speedy service, devoted purely to the conveyance of mails and of passengers, in favour of which tho Imperial Conference pronounced at the instance of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. It may, indeed, ho found that the difficulties in the way of the realisation of tho project of the Conferencedifficulties which were indicated last week by Sir Thomas Sutherland at tho annual meeting of the P. and 0. Compan—are .10 great that they may even prove to be insuperable. And it would be unfortunate if, in tho meantime, the service we have were allowed to lapse through lack of support from the colonies which are chiefly concerned in the maintenance of the " All Red" connection.