P. AND O. AND THE CAPE TRADE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 88, 15 April 1910, Page 2

P. AND O. AND THE CAPE TRADE.

Increased attention to the potcibilities cf the Cape route to and from Australia, is given with the entry of the P. and 0. Company s nto the South African trade by tho acquisition of Lund's Blue Anchor Lino (saya the Sydney Telegraph). For .nany yean past the Blue Anchor boats have come out to Australia by way of the Cape, culling bot'.i at Dnrbin and Capetown on the homeward run. The P. and O. Company will consequently be in tho position to offer Australian passenger* a clioice of routes— via Buez or via the Cape. It it officially announced that for thu present tbt business of the Blue Author Line "branch" will continue to be conducted by the firms with which thu enterprise haa long been associated. But it cannot be doubted that the newly-ac-quired steamers are dertioed to become an integral part of the P. and 0. fleet, and .that tsuoHtantial developments may be exacted. For one thing, the revival of emigration to Australia would of Itself bo a sufficient justification for the recent purchase. The traffic is one for which the P. and 0. mail steamers do not cater, and the probability is that it haa a preat future before it. Equally is it pqtxible that tho P. and 0. Company i* anxious to utilixe the Lund fleet/ for securing a considerable share in the Cape trade, to which it has heretofore been a stranger. The status of the company would seem to assure that it will eventually give a high-date service to South Africa, both for passengers and cargo. Its incursion into the New Zealand trade early in the present year -is only one- indication of progress.

There in every probability of Aucklanden being piivileged to witness the great itallion Dan Patch in action (s»ys the Star), for Mr. (.'•• F. Mark, secretmy of the Auckland Trotting Club, haa been advised by cable that bis owners intend sending him across to Auckland tn try for tho purees hung up by the club for the lowering of the records. If Dan Patch strips ;it Kppom it will be ono of thn biggest nt 1 l action* ever Men at Auckland, and will be worth going a long way to see.