THE VANCOUVER MAIL.

Hastings Standard, Issue 16, 14 May 1896, Page 2

THE VANCOUVER MAIL.

We hope that Captain Bird, who is negotiating with the Queensland Crovernment 011 behalf of Messrs IluddartTarker and Co. for a mail subsidy for the Vancouver service, may succeed, so that New Zealand may be saved the expense. We do not think that New Zealand has anything to gain in subsidising this line; indeed, we believe it would be to the interests of this colony to confine its mail subsidies to the direct liners, and thus in an indirect manner help the producers of the colony. The cheapening of ocean freights must be faced sooner or later, and if the direct steamers were made the recipients of the mail subsidies, the concessions in freight might fairly be urged. What difference does it make to the bulk of the people of New Zealand whether they get their Home letters a few days sooner or later ? Once a month the 'Frisco mail illustrates the celerity with which letters posted in the United Kingdom can be delivered in the colony, but the illustration is costly without being beneficial. The great hopes of building up an export trade with America have not been realised, and never will be realised, so that the 'Frisco mail service is doing us no practical good. Far better would it be to disburse the money in equal portions between the Shaw-Savillc and the New Zealand Shipping Companies, stipulating for a faster service with lower freight charges on produce. The Vancouver mail service we do not need, at any rate not at the high price of £IO,OOO a year for seven years, which Captain Bird has asked the Queensland Government.