SOUTH V. NORTH.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3855, 7 May 1881, Page 2

SOUTH V. NORTH.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.)

Sib, —There is a strong feeling in the southern provinces, and especially in Otago, against the Pacific Mail Service. The colony pays a' heavy subsidy for the privilege—some £60,000 or £70,000 per annum —and southern politicians assert that it ia entirely for the benefit of Auckland. The Now Zealand Public Opinion, a Dunedin print, suggests that a fort* nightly service by the Orient line could be cheaply arranged for, and could be much more beneficial, and from Otago point of view perhaps Public Opinion is right. Dunedin and Chris tchuich are regardiug with jealousy the gigantic strides the North has been making during the past two years, indeed the progress is so fast that before another decade has gone over our heads we expect to see Auckland by far the most important city in New Zealand, It is consequently quite in keeping with the feeling evinced towards the .North throughout the chapter that an attempt will be made to abolish the Pacific Mail Service. This will be strenuously opposed, though it must be remembered that the service has not brought about one of the important results expected by it—via , the establishment of commercial relations between the •olony and the American States on the Pacific slope; Our American friends have greedily swallowed the subsidy, but hare made no endeavor to benefit the colony in any way. Taking this into consideration it would be advisable, I think, to terminate the present agreement and offer the subsidy to some local organisation, the Union Company for instance, by which' means a large sum of money would ba kept in the polony, and there would be a better chance of commercial relation* being established between the two countries. It would be preferable even if we bad to increase the subsidy. New Zealand is quite old enough to stand on her own bottom in this respect.—l am, &c,

Old Colonist.