NORTHERN STEAMSHIP CO'S YEAR.

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 122, 26 May 1930, Page 12

NORTHERN STEAMSHIP COS YEAR.

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "The Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, This Day. Mr. A. B. Robertson, at the Northern Steamship Company's meeting, said the company is in a sound financial position, but the year had not passed without anxiety. A factor which had affected the company's operations was the extraordinary change which they were experiencing in their business—namely, a change-over from combined cargo and passenger carrying trade to practically a cargo service only. The linking-up of the northern and East Coast railway to the main Auckland line and the general improvement in highways which had allowed better motor service car connections, had created competitive routes to coastal townships and settlements. This had reduced the number of passengers travelling by sea to such an extent that it no longer paid to run the company's larger passenger steamers. The directors were satisfied that the most difficult period of^ the transition in business had passed, and, except for the general depression in trade which they hoped was only temporary, everything indicated more buoyancy in'the future operations of the company.