BRITISH SHIPPING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22504, 23 February 1935, Page 11

BRITISH SHIPPING

TO THE EDITOR

Sir, —In your issue of August 7 last you published a letter from me under the above heading, together with a leading article, in the course of which you expressed concurrence with the views expressed therein. I wish now, with your consent, to draw attention to another disadvantage under which not only British ships, but our postal service, suffers as the result of the unfair system of subsidised American shipping. On this steamer, due in Honolulu to-morrow, a notice appears stating that letters posted on shore in Honolulu “will be held for the Matson steamer, and will not reach Sydney until three days after Niagara.” The position, therefore, is that letters for New Zealand must be posted on board, and will be carried on to Vancouver and back, and arrive in Auckland on February 18, some three days before the Matson steamer for which they would be held by the United States post office if posted in Honolulu. Now, both the United States and the British Empire are members of the Postal Union, and this policy of the former seems to me to be contrary to the spirit of the union, and in direct disregard of the postal tradition of forwarding all correspondence by the first available opportunity. I am assured on reliable authority that mails made up and despatched from England for the Canadian-Pacific railway ahd the C. and A. steamer for Australia and New Zealand have been intercepted in New York, and forwarded via San Francisco to the subsidised Matson steamer. Of course, the whole explanation is that, without any regard for fair competition, the Government-sub-sidised steamers must be supported even in the matter of mails. Doubtless both the New Zealand and Australian Governments are aware of this, but I venture to think that the New Zealand public is not, and I now draw attention to it just as another reason why British people should support British ships.— l am, etc., Peter Barr. S.s. Niagara, January 17.