VANCOUVER MAIL SERVICE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 340, 29 October 1908, Page 2

VANCOUVER MAIL SERVICE.

A PETITION TO THE PREMIER. " (DV TEI.EUIUL'H.—SI'ECIAI, CIIItItF.SrONUItNT.J

. Auckland, October 28. The inconvenience.of the present arrange molts .in regard to the inward Yancouvei mail was forcibly represented to a reporter yesterday by Dr! 'i'liope Lewis, who recently returned from America to Now 1 Zealand by that route on the .Manuka from Vancouver to Suva. ''There wore," he said, "some 40 1 passengers'"for various ' parts ofj New . Zealand. Wo sent a petition to Sir Joseph Ward, in which we pointed out what seeing to be a very anomalous position in regard to this scrvicej viz., that whilst a steamcj is sent from Auckland to Suva to meet outward bound mail, there is no stoama leaving Suva for Nqiv Zealand on tile.arrival of' the inward mail from Vancouver. Th\s necessitates the New Zealand passengers travelling some 2126 extra miles fun thor than they need otherwise,do by having to go to Australia and'then to New Zealand, and in many cases they are required. to make extra payment on account of this additional journey. The alternative is to wait 10 days at Suva, which three out' of the 40 passengers elected to do On the occasion oE the Manuka's recent trip. To. add to the aggravating position of affairs in this connection, we found that -the Auckland boat from Suva leaves oilly two'days before the arrival of the Vancouver mail. It, is no use for Auckland merchants to complain about the : subsidy for the Wellington-Tahiti service, • when they, havo allowed the sort of thing that I liavo just spoken of'to go oil for seven years." ■ • - 1 '