SHALL IT CONTINUE ? The San Francisco Mail Service.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 14, 6 October 1900, Page 6

SHALL IT CONTINUE ? The San Francisco Mail Service.

IT is gratifying to learn from America that two of the magnificent new passenger steamers which the Spreckels Company are building for the mail service between San Francisco and these colonies have been launched, and that the third vessel is now approaching completion. These are 6000 ton ships, they are being luxuriously fitted up as floating palaces, and it goes without saying that they will be an immense improvement upon the ships that are running at the present time. Necessarily, they will stimulate the tourist traffic to New Zealand, and apart from the speedier delivery of our mails, they will be of immense advantage to us in other ways. Moreover, there will be a service once every three weeks, instead of monthly as heretofore. * * • Viewing all these circumstances disinterestedly, it is to be hoped that satisfactory arrangements will be made between the Messrs 'Spreckels <and the Government of New Zealand for the continuance of the new service, which is to be inaugurated next month. Exception has been taken in this colony to the new territorial laws of the United States, which exclude the Union Company's s.s. Moana from a participation in the service, and these laws have been used as an argument for the withdrawal of the subsidy we have hitherto paid. But it must be remembered that the Messrs Spreckels did not make the territorial laws of their country, and having shown great enterprize in building fast and palatial steamers for the service, it would be unfair to punish them by withdrawing a subsidy upon which they had relied for the reward of their enterprize. * # * It is quite possible to frame the conditions of the new contract so that our labour shall not suffer. In other words, it can be made mandatory that at least the same number of colonial sea-faring men shall be employed on the new vessels as are engaged on the s.s. Moana under the present arrangement. Thus, this avenue of employment might still be kept open to our seamen and to those of our youth who are anxious to become seamen and to travel as such to distant countries. It has also been urged that in the event of a rupture between Great' Britain and America, these steamers might be used as cruisers against us ; but, as against this, there is also the fact that under a neutral flag these steamers would be the safest and most valuable means of communication with the outside world in the event of war between Great Britain and another Power. * # • The service is an excellent and useful one. It maintains frequent and convenient communication between New Zealand and America, with which country we are building up a considerable commerce. It gives us our European correspondence many days quicker than the maila by any other route. It is an excellent alternative route to the one via Suez. Finally, it brings a great many wealthy tourists and others to our shores from America, and this in itself is a great consideration. There are many arguments in favour of the maintenance of the service, even under the altered conditions, and therefore it is to be hoped that the Government will meet the Messrs Spreckels in a liberal and even generous spirit.