New Mail Contract.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 10, 1 August 1906, Page 261

New Mail Contract.

Details of the new mail contract, recently ratified by the Commonwealth Government, must be so well known to Progress readers as not to require any expression of detail here. That there has been a considerable amount of political " wire-pulling " (which is apparently inseparable from " good " Government) in the completion of this great contract is beyond question, for in the first place the contractors and suppliers of the new ships have no reputation outside of the building of tramp steamers. A few exceptions may be mentioned in small vessels like the Bombala, Rivenna and Westraha — ships well enough known to many New Zealanders — but to compare, in point of capability, a North of England firm like the Lamgs (which only builds ships, and not the engines) with such Clyde builders as the Fairfield Co., of Govan, and Caird & Co , of Greenock, both of which have supplied the majority of the ships that have made the Australian Mail Line famous for the past twenty years, is not only absurd, but is calculated to prove the means of engendering very serious doubts as to the future efficient carrying-out of the great contract. In extension of our views we only have to quote the remarks made regarding the new contract by Mr. John Paxton, of Sydney, who is one of the best-known authorities on shipping affairs in the colonies. Mr. PaXton is right when

he said that " the Commonwealth Government do not seem to realise the tremendous undertaking before them," for the terms of the contiact require that vessels are to be employed that would be twice the size of the magnificent ships Mongolia and Marmora, of the P. &O. Co As a matter of fact the total number of steamers afloat at the present time that would approach this size is about four ; therefore, any such sum as set aside m the contract for the building of each vessel, is totally inadequate. Thus, in order to bring the proposed nine new ships up to the standard of efficiency of the P. & O. Co.'s vessels, it -will take a sum in excess of over and above the amount that it is proposed to expend on the lot. Mr. Paxton further states that " the precise sum depends upon the fittings and the machinery, and this is the point which the Commonwealth Government have not considered." We cannot but concur with Mr. Paxton in that, although the contract looks genuine on the face of it, there is a feeling that something has not yet been disclosed, not perhaps necessarily on the part of the Commonwealth Government, or actually on the side of the contractors ; while the agreement looks uncommonly like one which, to use a shipping term, has been entered into chiefly to "beer" money. In the present instance the contract is so onesidely in favour of the Commonwealth that the utmost care requires to be taken to safeguard against the possibility of a loophole of escape for the contractois. The mere deposit of in cash, and a guarantee of a further sum of although representing substantial sums of money, does not by any means indicate the amount of security called for under the agreement, because the option of a ten years' mail contract carrying a subsidy cf per year for a sum of is one which hundreds of investors, in the Old Country and m Australia, would be glad to take an interest in with a view to untimately disposing of the contract at a handsome premium to someone else. Perhaps this is an aspect of the business with which the Commonwealth Government is not particularly familiar, and in any case we cannot do more than come to an opinion that the new contract, if it is really to be an improvement on the old order of things, is highly desirable for the Commonwealth, but need not be considered seriously by New Zealanders, for after the new mail vessels have called at all the chief ports in Australia, with the terminal at Brisbane, we would have nothing to gam on our arrangements with Spreckels and the direct liners. Then again, the opening of the Panama route, m 19 14, will prove an event of the greatest significance to this colony. With either Auckland or Wellington as the first or last port of call, we shall have a route but three-quarters of the distance of the present Brindisi itinerary, and indubitably one of the best opportunities for steam communication in the world. We are gratified to learn that the P. & O. Co. is to alternate with the Lamg vessels in the new regulations, and, also, that the conditions of the P. & O. Co.'s running are fixed by the Imperial Government, so that that established system of

mail transit is not likely to be subjected to the risk that usually characterises the carrying-out of an original and experimental venture of the magnitude of the new Australian Royal Mail Line.