MAIL STEAMER SUBSIDIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 216, 19 September 1901, Page 2

MAIL STEAMER SUBSIDIES.

Sib Thomas Sutherland, chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, in giving evidence on Ist August before the Salect Committee of the House of Commons, wh ch is inquiring ioto tbe effect on British of the subsidies granted to shipping by foreign o uutries, stated that the present subvention which the P. and 0. received for the Indian, China and -Australian mail service was ,£330,000 per annum. Of this .£85,000 attached ■ to the fortnightly service which the company carried on between London and Sydney. The fleet consisted of some 330,000 tons of shipping, which cosb upwards of .48,000,00b, and was the most extensive fleet under the British flag. Questioned as to the mail subsidies, the following pueation and answer are - recorded: " Whfit amount of subsidy would put you on a level with the North-German Lloyd, which receives £280,000 a year?—at least £50,000 a year more, on account of the larger number of trips, which the P. and O. vessels make through the Suez Canal as compared with the German vessels. In connection with the subject of foreign mail contracts, he wai of opinion that the comparatively |short periods for which they were made—seven years, as compared with fifteen in the case of the Northern-German LUoyd—represented a short-sighted policy in the best interest of the mail service. The present contract had only four years to run, and as they did not know what was going to happen at t»e end of that time, they had to be very circumspect in regard to the outlay of capital for l the purpose of constructing mail steamers pure and simple. If their contract | were for 15 years his company would be expending £1,000,000 or X 1,500,000 more than they were doing at present in-order to improve and accelerate the future mail service. Sir Thomas sta'ed tba^'taken tin a mileage basis, the amount paid to the P. and O. Company by tbe British Government for the Australian mail service worked out at 2s 7d per mile, as compared with 8s 4d for the Maritimes and 6s 8d for the North-German Lloyd.