PACIFIC SHIPPING

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 254, 23 July 1936, Page 13

PACIFIC SHIPPING

Impending Discontinuance of Services GREAT BLOW TO PRESTIGE “The discontinuance of the San Francisco mail service will deal a great blow to British shipipng prestige in the Pacific, and will mean the loss of valuable trade to Wellington,” stated Mr. W. Sommerville, secretary of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Institute of Marine and Power Engineers. in his report presented to the annual meeting of the institute last night. “This decision has been made after some years of heavy'loss in the service, and emphasises that private enterprise cannot compete with high State subsidies.

“The problem of British shipping in the Pacific is still acute, but there are signs that it wil] be brought to a head In the near future. The case for some form of assistance has already been argued in the British House of Lords, particularly by our former GovernorGeneral, Lord Bledisloe. The three Dominions directly affected, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, are substantially in agreement, but the British Government is apprehensive concerning the possible reactions of anything like State protection upon its own foreign trade. The question put to the Imperial Shipping Committee, whether rhe form of assistance suggested would have any ill effect on any other British interests, makes that clear. “In April the Union Company announced the discontinuance of its service between Sydney, Wellington, and San Francisco, to take effect on the arrival at Sydney of the Maunganui in November, and the Makura in December. The future of the Canadian Aus-

tralasian Line between Vancouver, Auckland and Sydney is similarly threatened. The withdrawal of the Maunganui and Makura affects the positions of some 350 men. “The Union Company has been connected with the trans-Pacific services since 1885, when the first voyage from this end was made by the Mararoa, which had then just come out from the builders in Scotland.”