FOR SALE?

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 50, 27 August 1930, Page 16

FOR SALE?

SHIPPING INTERESTS

ANTIPODEAN TRAtfE

Private advices from London report that negotiations have been entered iilto for the purchase by the Inehcape shipping group of tho Kylsaat interests in tho Australian and New Zealand oversea trades, says the Melbourne "Age." Mr. H. B. C. Larlrin, former head of the Commonwealth line, who is now manager in London of the P. and O. Branch line, was stated to be one of the prime movers in the proposed transaction. ;' ■■'.■■■■■■'.•..

The new tariff, increased taxation, and costs of upkeep were said,/ to have prompted the negotiations. If they come to.a successful issue, all Australian oversea shipping will be affected, as the two opposite interests concerned at present constitute the only real rivals for British supremacy in the trade.

.The Inehcape interests are associated directly or indirectly with the P. and O. British India Steam Navigation, Orient Line, P. and O. Branch, Federal Steam Navigation, Union Steam Ship Co.,' New Zealand Steamship Co., A;U,S.N. Co., Burns, Philp, and Co., Eastern and Australian Shipping Co., and'have an aggregate capital of some £30,000,000. The'shipping companies associated with Lord Kylsant have a capital of approximately £50,000,000, and since their purchase of the old Commonwealth line and Aberdeen lines, have spent much money improving those services, and also on the White Star and Shaw, Savill lines, which are Tssoeiated with them, in tho Australian trade.

The head of the Inehcape interests inAustralia i? Mr. W. A. M'Kay, nephew of Lord Inehcape, and Mr. E. A. Eva, former London manager of the Commonwealth line, has upheld the Kylsant house flag in the Commonwealth since the sale of that fleet to private enterprise, under the Bruce Government. Neither, when interviewed, had any details of tho negotiations to disclose.