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VANCOUVER SERVICE.

I Read here No.. 2 San Francisco Service.]

No. 71. The Right Hon. the Prime Minister, Wellington, to the Right Hon. the Prime Minister. Ottawa. (Telegram.) Wellington, 25th October, 1909. Present arrangement Vancouver mail steamer service with Australia expires Hist August next. Be glad if you can see your way arrange with Australia agree extension Canadian-Australian contracts after Ist August, including Auckland as port call. New Zealand willing join in subsidy for five years. Important in interests Canada as well as New Zealand that we have good mail-steamer service connection, but not possible for us let present conditions continue. | Van. Misc. 09/89.]

No. 72. The Right Hon. the Prime .Minister, Ottawa, to the Right Hon. the Prime Minister. Wellington. (Telegram.) Ottawa, 4th November, 1909. Referring to your last cable, Canada will be ready to participate if Australia concurs.

No. 73. The Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington, to the Deputy Postmaster-General, Ottawa. Sir, — General Post Office, Wellington, 4th November, 1909. In continuation of the last paragraph of the letter from this office of the sth May last [F.-6, 1909, No. 58], on the subject of the diversion of correspondence from the Vancouver to the WellingtonPapeete- San Francisco route, I have now the honour to forward herewith " M " statements respecting mails from New Zealand offices for the United Kingdom, despatched via Vancouver during the period from the Ist to the 28th May, 1909. 1 have, &c, I). Robertson, Secretary. The Deputy Postmaster-General, Ottawa. [P.O. 09/4193.] ______________

No. 74. [ Extract from Financial Statement delivered by the Bight Hon. Sir J. Q. Waul. Minister of Finance, lotli November, 1909.] Ocean Mails. Negotiations have been proceeding with the view of including Auckland as a port of call of the Vancouver steamers, and I am hopeful that the sympathetic attitude of Canada will assist towards securing the desired result. Sir Wilfred Laurier has. in response to a cable communication from me. replied that Canada is agreeable if Australia consents. lam submitting the matter by letter to the Prime Minister of Australia, with a view to Auckland being included as a port of call. I trust that the Commonwealth Government may be able to agree to what would be to the advantage of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, as a linking-up of the three countries by a service of this kind must confer advantages upon all. In the meantime I have endeavoured to arrange a close connection with the Vancouver steamers at Fiji, but the high cost of this and the undesirability of establishing such a connection, if there is a possibility of the main line being diverted to Auckland, may make it advisable to await the result of the negotiations now- proceeding between this Dominion, Canada, and Australia : but should it not eventuate, then every effort must be made to establish a mail and passenger service from Auckland to San Francisco via Suva and Honolulu. I have devoted much attention to the possibility of establishing a service by New- Zealand steamers between Auckland and San Francisco by way of Tahiti, only to find that withoul assistance from the American Government the cost of such a service is beyond our resources. There is. however, some reason to believe that in the next session of Congress the much-debated Shipping Subsidy Bill will become law, when a service by American steamers will, it is practically certain, ho undertaken. At, the same time, I do not think we should overlook the advantages to New Zealand of having a suitable service via Suez. It is deeply to be regretted that, after so many years of control by the Suez Canal