SAN FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8330, 11 January 1907, Page 5

SAN FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE.

By Telegraph—Press Association

AUCKLAND, January 10

Mr V. A. Sproule, New Zealand representative of the Oceanic Company, in the course of a I'eply to criticism of the San Francisco mail service, refers at length to the difficulty in maintaining the service since the San Francisco earthquake. He says: "Now and then we learn from critics what an English company would have done under circumstances of the past nine months, especially in regard to substituting steamers at a few days' notice suitable to do the round trip of over 14,000 miles, thus bringing to bear an odious as well as a nonsensical comparison. It is plain to shipping men, both English and American, that at present there is no company that could charter in this part of the world or at San Francisco steamers to suit the requirements of the trade in less than three or four months' time. It has been admitted," continues Mr Sproule, "that the San Francisco service is the cheapest, the best, and the fastest route to London, and it seems in most part an unfair attitude for rabid critics to denounce it in the street and in commerce chambers because of its failure to carry ou a contract in its entirety under conditions which would have seemed impracticable to many English and American companies operating trade with similar tonnage. Such criticisms are unworthy of those who voice them, and it is fortunate that the majority of business men in the colony, including the PostmasterGeneral, are too fair-minded and level-headed to cry for discontinuance of a service for the upkeep of which so small a share is paid by New Zealand, and whose lapses when they do occur only bear strong testimony to its utility. The United States, which pays the lion's share of the subsidy, is considering a Bill to increase the payment, and if this is carried New Zealand will come n for the benefits of all the improvements that the increased subsidy will warrant.''