VANCOUVER MAIL SERVICE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11643, 22 August 1905, Page 5

VANCOUVER MAIL SERVICE.

The position' in regard to the Vancouver mail service was incidentally explained by the Postmaster-General. The House had authorised that £20,000 should be offered to get this service extended to New Zealand. That offer was made to the Union Steamship Company, side by side with which the Queensland Government, it was understood, expressed its willingness to give up the right_of the steamers calling at Brisbane, for which it was paying .£IO,OOO, whereas the New Zealanl Government offered £20,000 to get the steamers to call here. The Queensland Government afterwards changed its attitude, and got the Federal Government to spread the £10,000 over the whole of the Commonwealth. The result was that the steamers could not be withdrawn from Queensland, and although the New Zealand Government offered £20,000 for three years to the Union Company, tfce company, which was subsidised by tho Canadian Government, was unable to' accept the- offer. Therefore, until 1906 the Union Company was tied to Brisbane, and could 'not come on to New Zealand. Sir Joseph Ward assured members that everything had been done to get the service extended to this colony, and he had hopes that it might still be done. The colony, however, was not prepared to pay £100,000 for an independent mail service to Vancouver.