Ship officers, cartage firm join protests

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32524, 6 February 1971, Page 16

Ship officers, cartage firm join protests

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, February 5. The transport industry and the Merchant Service Guild today protested about the proposed take-over oi the Union Steam Ship Company by T.N.T. of Australia.

Mr J. P. Hales, general manager of the New Zealand Express Company Ltd, said that it was “absolutely essential” that New Zealand, preferably through a large Government holding, re-enter the shipping field.

It was more important for the country to ensure that its products reached their destinations at competitive prices than for a revamped Union Company to make a substantial profit.

“It is perfectly obvious that the new owner will not be satisfied with the reported meagre profits of the past,” he said. “And if this is so, there can only be one al-

temative and that is substantially to increase freight rates.”

The New Zealand Merchant Service Guild was against the Union Company being taken over by an overseas company, said the guild’s secretary (Captain J. W. Dickinson) tonight. “If the company is to be taken over, we prefer it to be taken over by a New Zealand company that can run the line efficiently and competitively,” he said.

At this stage, the guild was not aware of T.N.T.’s intentions towards manning present Union Company s’ ps with New Zealand crews, but it was hoped that New Zealand seafarers would receive top priority. The guild was also anxious to see New Zealand’s

merchant navy built up in tonnage to meet the challenge of the 19705. At present there were no assurances that T.N.T. would follow policies such as these, but the guild would make representations on the matter, Captain Dickinson said. AUST. PLANS In Sydney, Thomas Nationwide Transport has announced plans to double the number of fast roll-on shijts plying between Australia and New Zealand—from two to four—if its proposed takeover succeeds.

T.N.T. plans to split the present company into a Tasman cargo service which would be 50 per cent owned in Australia and 50 per cent in New Zealand; and into a New Zealand coastal shipping company which would include the Union Company’s present Pacific Island service—to be owned 25 per cent by T.N.T. and 75 per cent by New Zealand interests.

The Union Company’s Australian coastal trade would be run within the Bulkships, Ltd, framework in which T.N.T. has a 33 per cent interest.