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ALL RED ROUTE

j THE NECESSITY FOIt IT. (By the Hon. WW P , mber E . .... tl "' Daily Chronicle.) l b • on the AU m l of llalif.i v V " Uh S Jd ne y by way L,T i , Uoc °uver, and Auckland i,, n / " v 'j'w neen ,. l3,ooo and 14,000 milts '■W ■!, , ! he mattcr of time it ■" " ""- advantage that one-fifth of it ■-■ ou land and may be travelled at ev 1" -« railway speed. ,° n ' y at one P° int will line '' d , for »'K a soil, and even therelonon u- he hwiK> thou „ h n' a ' ,3 °'uiely necessary. 11 tl ' 1 ?- ( lin " 7'" linii niore clos; v i£T° . ™ lolllst - 1 with the Mot >.-r Country and with each other It should he of practical a,lvan J!ti, the nnportant white divisions of the r P rf lh ° WhitM ' , T ° crit 'M accustomed to think UjiKwm T P, u . ro P Cl ' n terms, the 11,000,000 who inhabit Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, seem but a scanty number, scarcely enough to deserve fast and expensive steam communication. But when considering rabid tramit ™r 9tionS „ haVe t0 account as well as mere populationprosperity, wealth, progress, and oho trav ll 'r , madc of and travelling facilities. Canada, Australia and New Zealand are rich and prosperous countries. Their exports amounted ast year to almost £130,.000,000 sterling, a value far exceeding tli3 exports the Russian Empire, with all its vast area and scores of millions of patient producers. It has lately been pointed out that New Zealanders write more letters per head in the year than do tne well-educated Germans. Finally, if the figures showing the passengers on the ocean-going and inter-colonial steamers which carry to and from the countries •concerned in the All Red Route were collated, they would show that Australians, Canadians, and New Zealanders are very mobile folk indeed. TO VANCOUVER IX EIGHT DAYS. The claims of the All-Red Route oa Imperial grounds have already been tully and ably set out in the Daily Chronicle. Elsewhere, however, abundant stress has been laid upon its co-i and difficulties. To judge from some criticisms, one would imagine that Halifax had suddenly become a more or less inaccessible harbor, wrapped in Cimmerian gloom, and that the Canadian Pacific railway had suddenly ceased to offer one of the safest, most comfortable, and mosi regular services oil the North American continent. After some study Of the question, however, I venture to believe that it will be possible to con)f}' malls and passengers safely from this country to Vancouver in eight days and that the journey will be as easy and pleasant for the passengers as that from England to San Francisco or New lork. At Vancouver we are confronted with the speaal problems of the Pacific sec- 1 tion of the proposed route. At Vancouver about 6000 miles have been traversed from .England, but that, of course, does not represent half the total distance It may be admitted, moreover, that the pace on the Pacific section cannot be equal to that maintained between England and Vancouver, or anything like equal. On the other hand, the present position of communication between Canada and Australasia across the Pacific is so slow and unsatisfactory that the task to be performed by the All-Red Route mav be comparatively moderate. It may effeet an immense relative improvement without going beyond a fairly quick rate of speed. The unsatisfactory state of the communications across the Paeific is mainly due to the high-handed maritime policy of the United States. For more than a generation Australians and New Zealanders have been anxious to maintain a mail and passenger line to San Francisco, and for 36 years such a line was kept up more or less successfully. But after the Americans had seized the Hawaiian group they refused to allow steamers carrying the British flag to carry cargo and passengers between Eonolnlu and San Francisco. THE PACIFIC SERVICE. In other words they treated a stretch of nearly 300U miles of open ocean as though it were the coastal waters of the United States. This unreasonable step, from which both Canadian and New Zealand shipowners suffered, threw the San Francisco steam service entirely into American hands. For some years an American company carried it on. The result, however, was by no means satisfactory. The service furnished was not good. The contractors complained that the subsidy—£so,ooo a year—granted by Congress, was not nearly enough. Thev could get no more; and at length, in the spring of the year the San Francisco service broke down. Thus the way has been cleared for the AllRed Route; for though a subsidised line does run from Sydney and Brisbane to Vancouver, it may not unfairly be described as a respectable stop-gap, which does not touch at New Zealand at all. In considering the capacity to be demanded of any highly-subsidised fast route across the Pacific, we may disregard both the optimism that talks of twenty-five knots and the pessimism which sees nothing possible above fifteen. Steamships running twenty knots an hour could reach Auckland from Vancouver in thirteen days and a half, and Sydney in two days and a half more. That would mean that mails and passengers would be carried from England to New Zealand in twenty-one days and a half, and from England to Sydney to twenty-four days. Boats running eighteen knots would require two additional days. NEW ZEALAND'S CASE. Since the breakdown of the San Francisco service, iew Zealanders have to rely on the Suez lines, both for their European mails and lor passenger routes, combining speed with conuort and interest. J3ut though the Suez mails notv reach Adelaide ironi Londo'i in thirty days, Adelaide is a very long way from New Zealand. At present New Zealanders cannot count oa getting English letters in less than thirtyfive days and a half. They are, therelore, worse off by four days than they were when the San Francisco service was working. They are worse oil by ten, eleven, or twelve days than they Swill be when the Allited Route has jbecn successfully established. I To attract passengers, fast steamers from Sydney to Vancouver would not require to be of Lusitania dimensions. From 7000 to 0000 toils would, in iny ibumble opinion, be ample. They would have to call both at Suva in Fiji and Jit Honolulu, because both places are ivery intersting to passengers, and because coal would have to be taken in kt one if not both of these ports. For 'the rest, coal is cheap and abundant at Vancouver and Sydney, and the coal at Auckland is of the best possible quality. I SPEED AND LUXURY. What support, it may be asked, in the Way of passengers and cargo, could be reckoned upon for the new fast service? The -answer is that, as far as can I be judged from experience, tlie passenger supports should !*■ ample. Travellers from the United Kingdom to Australasia, if they go out by Suez, naturally prefer to come home by North America, or vice versa. Colonists have the same feeling. Even under the comparatively uncomfortable conditions which have hitherto had to be encountered, large numbers have crossed the Pacific, and it is only fair to assume that these numbers will promptly increase when speed and something like luxury are to be obtained. In addition, there is the growing intercourse between North America and Australasia. Of cargo it is not easy to speak confidently. Hitherto trade across the Pacific has been hampered by hostile tariffs. All that can be said is that of recent ' years the freights on the San Francisco steamers to New Zealaud increased so 1 long as the running was at all regular. ' At present the trade between Austra- 1 lasia and Canada does not amount to ' £4oo,o*Kt a year all told. But the ma- 6 terials for a considerable commerce 1 exist should negotiations now pending between the colonies for commercial 3 reciprocity lead, as I believe they will, to friendly arrangements. ( Furthermore, it may be assumed that a fast service by way of Vancouver will be made use of by shippers from the western and north-western states of the American Union. It must be remembered that certain classes of wool as well ' as the hemp and kauri gum of New Zealand are colonial products which ' North America requires, and is likely » to take in increa-ing quantities. On j tlie other hand, certain clashes of goods 1 now imported by Australasia from the United States can be supplied quite as ' well by Canada. a ETCIRCASSIAN GIRL'S VENGEANCE. C A FEROCIOUS VOUNfi FURY. Although, after half a century of Russian occupation, private vendetta is still as rife a3 ever in the Caucasus, where a Circassian would never think of in.

coking the tribunal to punish a wrong I which lie could avenge himself, a case of vengeance has just occurred which has staggered even that wild people. ! In the village of (Juisnigoule, in the j Kutais region, one peasant had boon i murdered by another, and the victim's relatives at once assembled to devise ! means of exacting with their own hands r ' blood for blood. As, however, the as- . 1 sassin and his friends had taken elabo- ; rate precautions, and lived practically ; in a state of siege, no opportunity pre- ; sented itself, and matters appeared to . lie at an impasse. In this emergency the murdered mail's youngest sister, "a ■ girl of ten, charge dhcrself with I!>e c ■ duty of wreaking the family vengeance, 1 , and accomplished it with grim completeness. Keen-witted enough to understand that her tender years would disarm suspicion, site first secreted a knife , in her clothing, and then sallied out as , though for a child's play. Finding tint, ] . as she expected, no notice was taken of , i her, she even skipped playfully into the house of the murderer himself, where . she saw the head of the amily, an old . man of seventy-five, stretched out on s • the floor asleep with nobody near him. Stealing p to him slip drew her knife, ) and in an instant had plunged it deep i ] : into his throat. When seized, she c i calmly proclaimed that to avenge her ! r . brother was a duty, and that nobody j but herself had known of her purpose. j v The authorities are at a loss how (o a proceed with such a precocious young ij! fu jv

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19071011.2.29

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 11 October 1907, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,731

ALL RED ROUTE Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 11 October 1907, Page 4

ALL RED ROUTE Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 11 October 1907, Page 4

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