A SHIPPING CHALLENGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 172, 23 July 1929, Page 5

A SHIPPING CHALLENGE.

TKE TAHITI TRADE

AMERICANS BUSY

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SAN FRANCISCO, June 24. ' Fortified bv American dollars, the Matsou Navigation Company, of San Francisco, one of the richest steamship lines in the world, has decided upon a programme of expansion in the Pacific that will carry this company far afield from its modest beginning initiated by, its founder, the late Captain William Matson, half a century ago. Not only is the Matson Line going to establish a service between the Pacific Coast and the Philippines, but this distinctive American shipping concern has far greater ambitions, it is understood in San Francisco. Invasion of the Los Angeles-Honolulu trade, heretofore smugly held by the Los Angeles Steamship Company, is planned bv the Matson Company, according to information which comes from an° authoritative source. Also, the Matson Lins, with a view to making a tourist paradise out of the Pacific, will later include Tahiti, a South Seas gem, in its itinerary of call of its fine American ships. Steamship communication between Tahiti and the great Pacific Coast ports, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland, has long been held exclusively under the British flag by the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand. There is to be a change in so far as Tahiti relations with the Pacific mainland is concerned. The Matson people aro known to be casting eyes upon this attractive possession of the French for its tourist lure. Just how the cat will jump in this connection has not been disclosed. The building of two of the finest vessels under the American flag 'is shortly to be announced by the Matson Line. Ostensibly these two ships are for the San Francisco-Sydney trade, but it is rumoured that there will be a rerouting which will include Los Angeles. While the Matson Line has potential tourist accommodation plans, the Union | Steamship Line, a British flag concern, has not been caught in siesta. The latter line has now "building two modern motor ships on the Clyde, Scotland, superior to the great Aorangi, now plying in the trade between Australia and Vancouver. With these two fine ships in commission about two years hence the Union Line will be in a position to : meet competition of the Matson Line t with its new ships. Foreshadowing the coming importance of the Pacific as a trade area and establishing more firmly San Francisco's position as the dominant part in transPacific shipping, the Matson Navigation Company has announced the inauguratour of a fast freight service between San Francisco and Los Angeles and the Philippine Islands. This new service will be opened with the sailing of the steamer Maliko on July 12. Transit time will be twenty-three days, as compared with former schedules requiring generally thirty days and transshipment of cargo.