THE ALL-RED ROUTE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 37

THE ALL-RED ROUTE.

MR HALL-JONES'S VIEWS.

WELLINGTON, February 29.

The Hon. W. " Hall- Jones, speaking at the opening of a school at Waikanae, referred to -the proposed All-Red route. He said the trouble so far had been in -regard to the Atlantic service, the great cost of running boats at some 25 knots speed. The cost of an entirely new Atlantic Service / would be such that it would cause the matter to be delayed for some time, but when they remembered that they had such boats ac the Lusitania and the Mauretania, which fulfilled speed qualifications and which were running to New York, and that these boats were so largely under the control of the Imperial Government that they could h& diverted from the New York trade to the most suitable Canadian port, it would be well if for the present they looked upon these boats as supplying the Atlantic part of the service. In the event of any difficulty occurring, or an emergency-, the boats coiJW be diverted from New York to * Canadian port. The second section of the service across America was in the hands or the Canadians, and there only remained, therefore, an improvement of the Van-couver-New Zealand and Australian service. If they had 18-knot steamers from Vancouver it would mean that people could travel from London to Auckland in slightly over 23 days. The long time that it took to travel to the Dominion from Home told against us in the matter of population. People did not measure distance in this matter by miles. What he proposed would tend to bring a great many more people to the Dominion, aaid it would also serve the Empire in time of trouble.