31

F.—6

Comparing the trans-Andes route with the All-Red route, it is found that a fourteen knot voyage from Wellington to Vancouver via Suva and Honolulu would, including stoppages, occupy twenty-one days. The time between Vancouver and London under the new time-table may be set down at eleven days. The time, therefore, with a fourteen-knot steamer on the Pacific, would be thirty-two days via Vancouver as against thirty-nine by the trans-Andes route. Apparently the promoters of the trans-Andes service have reckoned on twenty-knot steamers running on the Atlantic and the Pacific. Even at this speed I cannot see how mails from England could be landed at Sydney in twenty-seven days. The time would be nearer thirty days. In any case, twenty-knot steamers are practically out of the question on an unbroken run of 5,080 miles. On the whole, there seems to be no present object to be gained in considering the proposed new route from a mail-service point of view, and I am not aware thai there is any trade reason for heavily subsidising a steamship line from Wellington to Valparaiso. I estimate that the subsidy required for such a, service would be at least £60.000 per annum. I have, &c, .1. (i. Ward, Postmaster-General. The Hon. It. H. .1. Reeves, M.L.C., Nelson. Approximate Coat of Paper. —Preparation, not given ; printing (1,630 copies), £18 158,

By Authority : John Mackay, Government Printer, Wellington.—l9lo. Price yd.)