TRADE WITH EAST

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 113, 6 February 1937, Page 8

TRADE WITH EAST

Singapore-Java-New Zealand Service K.P.M. LINE ENTERPRISE The Royal Packet Navigation Company, the well-known Dutch K.P.M. Line, intends shortly to commence a direct monthly shipping service between Singapore, main Javan ports and New Zealand, according to cabled information received yesterday by Johnston and Co., Ltd., the company's Wellington agents. The steamer Van Rees, well known in tlie company’s service to Australia, and the new motor-ship Maetsuycker, now nearing completion in Holland, wTll maintain the service. The first sailing will be taken by the Van Rees, leaving Singapore in April and calling at Batavia, Samarang, Sourabaya and Port Moresby (New Guinea), arriving at Auckland on May 6 and at Wellington on May 10. She will leave Wellington the following day for Sydney, going thence to Port Moresby, Java and Singapore. Tlie Maetsuycker, being a larger and faster vessel, will on each of her sailings provide an extended service from Saigon (Cochin-China), via Singapore, Javan ports, Rabaul aud Noumea to Auckland. She is due at Auckland on her maiden voyage on June 8, and at Wellington on June 11, returning from Wellington to Sydney and thence via her downward ports to Saigon. Transhipments from all ports of the East can be handled at Singapore. This new regular inonthlj- service added to the O.S.K. Line sailings to Shanghai and Hong-Kong, as well as to Japanese ports, and the Union Company’s service to Calcutta, will put New Zealand into regular and close connection with the great and varied markets of the East.

One of tlie world’s great shipping companies, the K.P.M. Line, has a fleet of some 130 steamers and motor-ships, and maintains a network of sailings from the Dutch East Indies to most ports of the world. The extension of a direct service to New Zealand has been contemplated for some time. The company is noted for its progressive outlook and sound management, an outstanding example of its activities being the fast aeroplane service which it has for a number of years maintained between Holland and Batavia, one of the earliest and most successful of the world’s now rapidly-growing air services.

The two largest ships in the K.P.M. fleet are the luxurious motor-liners Nieuw Zeeland and Nieuw Holland, of 11,000 tons gross, which maintain the company’s passenger service from Singapore to Australia. The Van Rees, for the New Zealand service, is a steamer of 3050 tons gross, built at Rotterdam in 1913. The mo-tor-ship Maetsuycker, now nearing completion in Holland, is a vessel of about 4000 tons gross register. It is understood that she will be fitted with refrigerated space for the export trade from New Zealand to the East. At present the Van Rees has no refrigerated space, but it is believed that in the near future she also will be fitted for the carriage of refrigerated cargoes.