THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1908. OUR ISLAND TRADE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3027, 26 October 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1908. OUR ISLAND TRADE.

From the first opening up of the .South Pacific, the North of Auckland has been the natural and recognised centre of South Sea trade. With the establishment of Auckland, the trade became a part of the commerce of the port. There has never been any prospect or possibility of the trade being fairly taken away by any rival port in New Upon this there can be no question whatever) as the Government must have known when it rushed through the expiring Parliament the first vote of a £7,000 subsidy for the establishment of a "mail service" between Wellington and Tahiti, by way of Rarotonga. To call such a scheme a "mail service" is absurd on the face of it, remarks the "Nev Zealand Herald." We have no satisfaction whatever in the connection at the near British colony Qf Fiji with

the Australian service between Brisbane and Vancouver. What possible satisfaction can there be in a connection at the French colony of Tahiti with a San Francisco line of steamers? To apeak of this Tahitian connection as giving us a rapid and valuable addition to our mail services is ridiculous. It is quite unlikely that the run between Wellington and San Francisco, via Tahiti, will be made in 24 days, and even this will make the time to London 35 days. We can get a considerably shorter time between Auckland and Tahiti than between Wellington and Tahiti, if the "mail service" idea is a genuine one. We are really no better oft' than before, as far as mails are concerned, and have only added another petty makeshift to our mail arrangements, when what we want is a thoroughly up-to-date and direct connection with Western America, so as to get to the great railway and steamer belt of the world in the fastest time and in the most convenient manner. The Tahitian connection, will neither help our postal arrangements nor encourage travel, for it will be necessarily much worse than the Fijian connection, of which complaints are so loud and numerous, and which is never assumed to be a popular tourist route. We are therefore compelled to regard the scheme as a - mere subsidy to Island traders having Wellington as their headquarters. In other words, it is a bonus given to Wellington for the purpose of enabling that city to cut Auckland out of a trade which cannot be taken away by fair competition.