BLUFF-MELBOURNE SERVICE.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1929, Page 8

BLUFF-MELBOURNE SERVICE.

If the cost is to be reduced as drastically as the Bluff-Melbourne steamer services New Zealand may find the loss of the R.M.S. Manuka not wholly a misadventure. The wreck of the steamer has forced a reconsideration of the subsidised steamer services between the South Island, Tasmania and Melbourne. The arrangement made was for an eight to ten days’ service, with the use of two steamers during the summer months. For this the taxpayers of the Dominion were called upon to pay a subsidy of £36,000, a rate of expenditure which certainly necessitated a great increase in traffic if the services i were to be justified. The new arrangement was inaugurated with the departure of the ill-fated Manuka from Melbourne, and it seems evident that prospects for greatly increased freights'or passenger traffic were not very bright. What has now been agreed to by the Government is a service every twenty - one days, to be maintained by the s.s. Maheno, the steamer which has been engaged on that route chiefly, for cargo carrying. It is not clear what amount the revised service-is to cost the-Do-minion, but it should be considerably less than £3OOO per month. The latest arrangement is to continue in force for a year, and this should give ample opportunity of testing the demand for direct shipping between the South Island and Australia. The Government's acceptance of a reduced service is not likely to be appreciated in Otago and Southland, but elsewhere it should receive commendation for having taken advantage of the opportunity, so disastiously afforded, of reviewing its former heavy commitment.