GERMAN NEW GUINEA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9083, 7 May 1908, Page 5

GERMAN NEW GUINEA.

THE MAIL SUBSIDY. Received May 6, 10.47 p.m. BERLIN, May 6. A debate on the New Guinea mail subsidy led the Reichstag to eliminate .the porposed services between German New Guinea and Singapore, and reduce the proposed additional grant of £25,000 to aid the so-called Australian-Japanese line to £11,500. HerrKnitz (Conservative) urged, in view of the seriousness of the Empire's financial embarassments that strict economy was imperative. Up to the present the North German Lloyds subventions totalled £5,500,000. The company was therefore scarcely a necessitous undertaking. Herr Horman declared that unless the company received further Government assistance British shipping would benefit by the consequent decrease in efficiency on the part of the company, which ought to be subsidised as long as the services were not remunerative. N Herr Dernberg, the Colonial Director, describing the bill as an act of colonial policy, argued that the commercial prospects of German New Guinea warranted the outlay. He emphasised the fact that the German colonies in the South Seas imported £150,000 worth of German goods. The prosperity of the islands would increase during the next decade, when the copra trade was fully developed. Received May 6, 11.40 p.m. BERLIN, May 6. Herr Dernbarg, continuing, saicK that the company's service's in the South Seas had entailed a lo*s. It was highly important to retain rcgulir communication between Australia and German New Guinea. Australian competition in the South Seas was very keen. This competition must drive them out of the field since it would seriously restrict the market for Ge-man goods, unless a large and fast line of German steamships was available to maintain communication with the German colonies Herr Dernberg added: "If the German flag disappeared it would create a bad impression. The subsidy was asked in the interests of the German South Sea Islands, lest for the sake of a paltry sum the flag would lose the respect wheroto it was entitled."

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