279

A—s

Mr. DEAKIN : We have a weekly service alternately by two lines. One of the present lines could be replaced by this new service. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : You would not carry mails through the Suez Canal ? Mr. DEAKIN : Yes; one week through the Suez Canal, and the next week this way. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : How long does it take through the Suez Canal ? Mr. DEAKIN : They could do it in 28 days, I think. We dawdled for four or five days on the voyage this year. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : Then the mails would be necessarily carried by the shorter route. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : In time the shorter route would take the place of the other services. Mr. DEAKIN : When I say 28 days I am speaking of what the present steamers can do without departing from their present conditions. The passage by that Suez route could be lowered by several days more. lam not an expert in the matter, but they are travelling now at a rate which shows me that they could easily do their work in 28 instead of in 30 or 31 days. Mr. ASQUITH : But you can hardly bring it down to 20 days. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : They have to call at Marseilles, Genoa, and other places; they would not be able to pay without that. Mr. ASQUITH : If you assume the new route to be brought into effective operation. Sir JOSEPH WARD : We had a mail service across America in 28 days and sometimes less. It is only 400 miles longer from Canada to New Zealand, and they were comparatively slow boats. Twenty days could be done easily enough. It is only a question of having sufficient money to do it. Mr. ASQUITH : You would want first-class boats both in the Atlantic and the Pacific. Sir JOSEPH WARD : Yes, unless you have them of that character you cannot do it; and that is the class I am advocating. I was going to refer to some other matters, but I may nave a further opportunity of doing so, but I will now bring my observations to a close. I do not want unnecessarily to take up the time of the Conference. I have endeavoured to show that in our country we have already put upon our Statute Book for preference upon some articles for England, which will continue. It is from 10 to 20 per cent, against foreign countries, as I have already pointed out, in favour of England. We have done the same in regard to South Africa, and the same in regard to Canada, and we are anxious to have it with England. How that should be done is a matter entirely for

Ninth Day. 1 May 1907.

Preferential Trade.