The Commercial Mastery of the Pacific.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIII, Issue 22, 1 December 1909, Page 61

The Commercial Mastery of the Pacific.

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION FOR AUSTRALASIA. The past two years have been productive of unprecedented development in trans-Atlantic shipping between Great Britain and Canada. The White Star and other first-class shipping concerns have entered the Canadian field, and in another year or two tire steamers running to Canadian ports from the United Kingdom will be equal in speed, size, and luxurious accommodation to the best of the steamers sailing from European ports into New York. Great as is the development on the Atlantic, the second decade of the twentieth century is likely to witness an even greater movement of British shipping to the Pacific, on a scale that will revolutionize the trade and travel routes of the world. By that time the Panama Canal will be opened, and Canada will have three transcontinental railways, instead of one, as at present. As New Zealand is vitally interested in all that pertains to shipping on the Pacific, it appears that now is the time for her Government and people to be on the alert to secure due consideration of the Dominion’s interests in the changes and improvements that the next tfew years are to bring about. Little has been heard lately in the newspaper press of the “AH Red Route” to Australia by way of Canada, but that by no means indicates that the project is dropped. As a matter of fact those who are most intimately associated with its development, on this side of the world, believe that the projebt i«

nearer accomplishment than at any time since it was first mooted, some twenty years ago. Shortly after the opening of the Canadian'-Pacific transcontinental Railway in 1886, an attempt was made to organise a fast mail and passenger service between Sydney, and London by way of Canada. The promoter of this enterprise was Mr. James Huddart, of Melbourne, of Messrs. Huddart, Parker and Co., a shipping firm that owned a line of coasting steamers trading between the principal towns of the east coast of Australia. Mr. Huddart obtained promises of support from the Governments of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, and with these came to England. He was, however, unsuccessful in enlisting the support of the British Post Office or any of the large shipping firms, and met with little encouragement from the Canadian Government or the Canadian Pacific Railway. The project came to nothing and shortly afterwards Mr. Huddart died. Later, Messrs. Gray, Dawes and Company, agents for the British India Steamship Company, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, and the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand co operated in establishing a fourweekly line of steamers between Vancouver, Honolulu, Suva, New Zealand ports, Brisbane, and Sydney. This line obtained a. subsidy from the Canadian Government, and from the Colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and New Zealand Its onlv competitor was the John D.. Spreckles. line from San Francisco to Sydney, which kept up a four-weekly service, calling at Honolulu, Samoa and Fiji. This service was sub-idised by the four colonies beforementioned and by the United States Government. After the Commonwealth came into force in 1901 the Federal Parliament declined to renew the subsidy to the Spreckles line, which a few years ago dropped out of existence, although th* Government of New Zealand made considerable efforts to maintain it. Consequently, the Canadian-Australian line, from Vancouver to Honolulu, Suva, Brisbane, and Sydney is now the only direct, steamship line carrying mails and passengers from North America to Australasian ports. The steamers of this line are good seaboats, but slow, and the accommodation is not up to the standard expected by the present day passengers in twentieth century ocean travel. As a mail route between England and Australia, the Canadian-Australian line- has never been of much use, and it obtained a renewal of its subsidy from the Commonwealth and Canadian Governments on the last occasion only with great difficulty. This subsidy expires in 1910. Recently newer steamers have been added to the fleet, but these, while a marked improvement on the older vessels, are still not nearly up to the standard of the regular liners that ply to Australian and New Zealand ports by way of the Suez Canal. As this Ca-nadian-Australian line is the only direct one in existence, at present, between Australasia and North America, it carries a large number of passengers at certain seasons of the year. It is managed chiefly in the interest of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and while it takes a good deal of freight outward from Vancouver, it is not very successful in collecting return freight from Australasia, for which there are reasons that need not be mentioned here. Recently, in the British House of Commons, the Prime Minister was asked if the “All-Red” scheme had been definitely abandoned. Mr. Asquith, in reply, said that the “investigations of the Committee inquiring into the scheme had not hitherto succeeded in removing the many difficulties by which it was surrounded, but there was no reason to assume that these difficulties would prove insuperable.” Commenting upon Mr. Asquith’s reply, several newspapers have fallen into the error of stating that the delay has arisen through objections to the “All Red Route" urged by the Governments of the Commonwealth of Australia, and the Dominion of New Zealand. This is not, however, the case. It will be remembered that the “All-Red” route proposal was first prominently put forward by Sir Wilfred Laurier, Premier of Canada, at the Imperial Conference, in May, 1907, and that it received support from the Hon. Alfred Deakin, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, Sir Joseph Ward, Prime. Minister of New Zealand, and the Hon. Sydney Buxton, British Post-master-General. The views of Sir Wilfred Laurier, Mr. Deakin, and Sir Joseph Ward as regards the “All-Red" route have not apparently undergone any

change since the time of the Conference, but there are various matters, both in Australasia and Canada, which make it inadvisable to take precipitate action for the present, so far as the trans-Ihicitic section of the “All-Red” route is concerned. Any- day now may bling an announcement of the acceleration of t!<J Atlantic service -.between the United Kingdom and Canada. In Canada there is at present only one trans-continental line—the Canadian Pacific Railway. By the end of 1911 there will be another, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and some years later there will be a third, the Canadian Northern Railway. Neither the Canadian Pacific nor the Canadian Northern Railway can properly 'be described as “All-Red,” inasmuch as both of them in their trans-continental route dip for a short distance into the United States. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, on the other hand, is entirely upon Canadian soil, and lies a long way to the north of the United States boundary. The full title of this railway is the Grand Trunk Pacific and National Transcontinental Railway. The Canadian Government builds the eastern half of it from Moncton, New Brunswick, to Winnipeg, a distance of 1800 miles, and leases that portion for a long term of years to the Grand Trunk Pacific Company, which builds the western half of the railway, another 1800 miles, from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert on the Pacific. The Government, however, guarantees bonds for the Company to provide funds for the construction of its half of the railway. Naturally, the interest of the Canadian Government in the success of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, in which it is, in a sense a partner, is very great, and in any scheme for the establishment of an “A4l-Red” route it is desirous that the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway should be duly considered before any contract should be entered into for a term of years. Of course it will be necessary to make a contract for a lengthened term to obtain the class of steamships required for the proposed service between Canada and Australasia. Further, Prince Rupert is one of the best and most beautiful harbours in the world, ranking in the North Pacific in that respect with Sydney in the Southern ocean. Physically, the Grand Trunk Pacific is one of the most perfect railways in North America, It is nearly level from the Atlantic. to the Pacific. Even in crossing the Rocky Mountains its maximum grade is «only four-tenths of one per cent. As a consequence one Grand Trunk locomotive will be able .to haul between the Middle West and the Pacific Coast a load that would require from four to eight similar locomotives on any of the other trans-Contincntal railways in North America. This means a great saving in the cost of traction for the new railway, and the excellent, level roadbed, and almost entire absence of curves, will permit of mail and passenger trains being run at a high rate of speed with perfect safety. There has been a tendency in Canada, yhen considering the “All-Red Route,” to assume that on the trans-Pacific section of it Australians and New Zealanders will be satisfied with a much slower service than what will be established ;m

the Atlantic. It is proposed for ths Atlantic service that between the United Kingdom and Canada to require a minimum speed of 25 knots, ami 16 to 13 knots have been spoken of for the service between Canada and Australia. The trans-Pacific end of the I ‘All-Red Route” should have a service of not less than 20 knots to start with, and that, too, of the highest dass of passenger steamers. With a fast Atlantic service, an acceleration across Canada, which will be possible when the Grand Trunk Pc ci tie line is completed in 1911, and a 20-knot service on the Pacific it will I>c possible to deliver mails between London and Sydney in from 23 to 24 days, which is about the time now’ taken by the fastest steamers through the Suez. Canal to Fremantle, in West Australia. A’ fortnightly mail by way of Canada, alternating with the present fortnightly Orient mail, would give a first-class tegular weekly mail service, while for British and Australasian travellers the round trip, going one way and coming the other, would be the most luxuriou'% comfortable, instructive and enjoyable of world tourS. Few Canadians, and not many Brit'sT people, realise that Australia and New Zealand have now a combined population of close upon five and a-half million people, of whom at least ninety-five per cent are British or of British extraction. Trading almost entirely with the Mother Country, and with the British traditional love of the sea, the Britons of the Southern Hemisphere have always been keenly alive to all matters pertaining to ocean shipping. The opening of the Panama Canal, five or six years hence, will revolutionise trans-Pacific direct shipping to Europe, and the completion of ths,Grand. Trunk Pacific Railway, two years hence, will render possible the finest and fastest mail an I passenger service in the world. The subsidy to the present Canadian-Av tralian I'nc expires next year. It is, therefor-', time for the people of New Zealand to be considering what share they are going to take in the coming struggle for the commercial mastery of the Pacific.