MAIL AND STEAMER SERVICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19000, 24 October 1923, Page 11

MAIL AND STEAMER SERVICES

AN INTERESTING COMPARISON. Recently Mr Massey' was jubilant at reaching London in 27j days from Wellington. Compared with the present mail service average of between 35 and 40 days, this is a big jump (writes “T.D.H.” in the Dominion), but it should not bo forgotten that the old Ventura 22 years back carried a inail from New Zealand that readied London via .San Francisco in 26 days, or a day and a-half bettor than Mr Massey’s trip. It is a curious fact that as the years go on New Zealand seems to get further away from London; instead of closer. Ten years bade the best mail lime was 51 days, 20 years back it was 28 days, 30 years ago the best run was 52 days, and even 40 years ago they averaged 38 days, with 37 for the best run. Our grandfathers will soon bo tolling ns about the fast ships there used to be in their days. Even the old Monowai in 1894 made a run across the Pacific that landed the mails in Wellington in 31 days from London, and established a record. It was in 1870 that the San Francisco service, was first established, superseding the old-time paddle steamers of the Panama lino that trundled across the Pacific at between nine and 10 knots. The original San Francisco contract was, I think, 25 clays between New Zealand and America, but the run was usually clone in Jess time. According to Lawson’s “Steam in the South Pacific,” that wonderful old veteran the Mararoa. on her first appearance in these waters fresh from the builders’ yards in 1885, was put on the San Francisco run, and had the distinction of being the first steamship with triple expansion engines to be seen in Californian waters.

While our direct liners have grown larger with the years, it does not appear that they have grown faster. The lean, longvanished Arawa of 30 years or so ago once steamed from London to Wellington, via Capetown, in 34 days 17 hours 23 minutes—a time that would be considered creditable to-day for an express mail raced across the Pacific in the Union Company’s crack Niagara, rushed in a fast train across America, and ferried across the Atlantic in some greyhound of u mammoth Cunarder ! ‘“T.D.H.” does not know what is the best time of the present-day liners, but he spent 49 days reaching New Zealand in one of the best of them four years back. ’ Tilings maritime move in a mysterious way in these latter days, as was made apparent during the war, when the faster the submarines sank (he liners the more visibly swelled the shipping companies’ profits.