PACIFIC MAILS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 December 1924, Page 8

PACIFIC MAILS.

NEW CONTRACT SIGNED. A FORTNIGHTLY SERVICE. BETTER FREIGHT TERMS. The Postmaster-General (Hon. J. G. Coates) announces that contracts have now been completed between the Union Steam Ship Company and the Government of New Zealand for the carriage of mails between Auckland and Vancouver, and between Wellington and San Francisco, for a period of five years (says the Dominion). The subsidies payable are the same as under the former contracts, i.e., £20,000 per annum for the Vancouver service and £25,000 per annum for the San Francisco service, and very satisfactory terms have been made regarding freight charges. The contracts for both the Vancouver and San Francisco services provide for four-weekly dispatches from Auckland and Wellington respectively; and the time-tables arranged so that the two services alternate, giving a regular fortnightly service from and to New Zealand.

The contract time for the voyages between Auckland and Vancouver, and vice versa, and between Wellington and San Francisco, and vice versa, is eighteen days, which is a speeding-up over the old contract by one day on the Vancouver service, and three days on the San Francisco service. The effect of the speeding-up is shown ’by the fact that the average time taken by mails dispatched from New Zealand to London since the commencement of the new contracts has been thirty days over both routes, as against thirtythree days during 1923, under the old contracts.

The Vancouver service is at present performed by the R.M.S. Niagara and the R.M.S. Makura, and the San Francisco service by the R.M.S. Tahiti and the R.M.S. Maunganui. Early in the New Year the new' motor ship, the Aorangi, will take up the running of the Makura, on the Vancouver service, and the Makura will ■replace the Maunganui on the San Francisco service. The Aorangi, which will leave Vancouver on February 6, is a vessel of 18,000 tons, and has a speed of 18 knots. She has accommodation for 900 passengers; and the accommodation provided on the vessel generally is much in advance of anything previously provided on the service.