AMERICAN MAILS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3167, 19 April 1909, Page 7

AMERICAN MAILS.

SOMETHING ABOUT THE TAHITI JSOUTE. The hope of the renewal of the fast mail service from New Zealand to San Francisco and thence to Britain must be abandoned for another year, writes a San Francisco correspondent. The United States Congress has again refused to grant the subsidy which might have induced the Oceanic Company to renew the old running or perhaps give something better. The Subsidy Bill, whijh was before Congress last month, was far nearer success than in previous years. The Senate agreed to it, and in the House of Representatives it was defeated only by three votes—l7s to 172. The Bill provided that American mail steamers of not less than 16 knots an hour and 5,000 gross tonnage should be paid four dollars a statute mile on mail carried to New Zealand, Australia, South America, the Philippines and Asia. Subsidised ships were to be convertible into cruisers. The liill was defeated in spite of the favourable report of the Postal Committee of the House. The Democrats opposed it violently, regarding °it as nothing more than a device of capitalist shipowners to plunder the Treasury. Until a 16-knot service is established., with the aid of the American Government, the service between New Zealand and San Francisco by way of Tahiti will probably be the best available. That this mail is useful is shown by the extent to which it is used. On the last trip 266 bags ofjjostal matter were taken to New Zealand, and over 200 bags were brought from there. But the service could be made fifty per cent, more useful with a slight change. If it were run every four weeks instead ot every five it eould be made to fit in with the Vancouver service, and so provide a fortnightly mail. Could it be done? The Union Company's Manapouri now does the trip from Wellington ta Tahiti in nine days with ease: tne Oceanic Company's Mariposa' completes the trip from Tahiti to San Francisco in twelve days. It is seen that, if a four-weekly service were to be instituted, the Mariposa would either have to quicken her run, or jret very smart dispatch at both ports. Of course the Oceanic Company would not make such an alteration for nothing, but it would appear to be worth something to get a regular fortnightly service between New Zealand and America, instead of two overlapping, frequently clashing, services of four and five weeks respectively.

The new route should become popular • among passengers. Both the islands visited—Rarotonga and Tahiti —are delightfully picturesque, and the life of Tahiti is interesting even to fascination. Imagine a town where the officials are French, the merchants German, American or French, the shopkeepers mostly Chinese, with natives and crossbreds of sundry castes in divers walks of life, and a few sailors and travellers of all lands mingling among them and you have the capital of Tahiti, the hybrid town of Papeete. It's a quaint and lovely little town. There is one respect in which the run could be much improved for travellers without any detriment to the mail service. At present the passengers from New Zealand to America have only half a day at Tahiti, while those going the other way four or five days there. If the Union Company's boat arrived there two days earlier the passengers going either way would be able to look round the island. The i boat would have to leave Wellington earlier but she would get back correspondingly earlier, and so while the ■ mail from New Zealand would take i two days longer to reach America, the same amount of time weold be saved on the run to the Dominion.