MESSAGERIES MARITIMES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1095, 6 April 1911, Page 5

MESSAGERIES MARITIMES.

». —. — FRENCH LINE DROPPING OUT. By Telegraph-Press Association-Copyright Sydney, April 5. There is a possibility that tho French lino of mail steamers conducted by the Messngefies Maritimes Company will cease to call at Australian ports. A movement is afoot, both in Franco and New Caledonia, to havo the line diverted ■to pass through East India to New Caledonia. Relations with Australia will bo maintained by means of a branch lino connecting Noumea with Sydney. French files declare that every attempt of the company to cempete with the great English companies in Australian trade has proved useless, and they argue that the new route will prove more profitable, and also shorten the voyage between Marseilles and Noumea.

The Messagones Mantimes do Franco stands twelfth among the shipping companies of the world in point of tonnago operated. It owns a fleet of G6 steamer= aggregating 289,267 tons. The preseiit company developed from a concern lor the carriage of inland mails in France. In 1851, states "Whitaker's Almanack"-— An oversea contract was • entered' into for tho French mails to Italy, Svria, the Levant, and Greece. There are "five services to Mediterranean and Black Sea ports, the last two trades being taken up in 1857. The India and China mail contract was secured in 18G1. There is a Service every 28 days to Australia and j\ew Caledonia, via Aden, Bombay, and Colombo, connecting at Colombo with the China main lines. A fortnightly service is maintained to Aden or Jibouti, Colombo, Singapore, Saigon, China, and Japan, with monthly connections for Pondicherry =nd Calcutta, and fortnightly for Java and the Tono.uin ports. There are departures on 25th of every month to Aden, Jibouti, Iltho (Seychelles), Madagascar, and Mauritius, with branch lines at Diego-Suarex for ports on east and west coasts of Madagascar,' Delagoa Bay, and Durban, and on 10th of every month to Jibouti, Mombasa. Zanzibar, Madagascar, and Mauritius. The foregoing, with a weekly cargo line to London via Havre, sail from Marseilles. The mail service from Bordeaux to Brazil and River Plate, commence] in 1861, now leaves fortnightly, within steamer once a month for cargo only. Cargo steamers are run from Antwerp to the Far East every two months and from Marseilles every month to tho French possessions in Indo-China. The largest passenger steamers are the At. lantique. 64-16 tons: Armnnd-Behic, 6.185 tons; Ville do la Ciotat, 6378 tons: Australien, 6365 tons; Polynesicn, G363 tons.