CUNARD LINE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 102, 3 May 1933, Page 10

CUNARD LINE

NEW ZEALAND SERVICE

ONE-SIDED TRADE

(ri-bm "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, March 31. Ihe annual accounts of the Cuuard Steam Ship Company to December 31 last showthat after providing for full depreciation, debenture interest, and other charges, there was a net loss for the year of £927,261. This compares with an adverse balance of £553,204 for 1931. Gross revenue amounted to £4,944,068, a decrease of £670,244. Working expenses, including repairs and renewals and taxes, were £337,941 lower at £4,879,863, leaving a. gross profit of £64,205 compared with £396,508. Depreciation absorbed £746,566, as against £704,779 in 1931, and after allowing for all charges, including £200,000 for debenture interest, the net result, as mentioned above, is an adverse balance of £927,261. To £8163 brought in has been added £-930,000 transferred from contingencies, making £938,163. Deducting the year's loss leaves a credit balance of £10,902 to be carried forward. ,',- No preference dividend is being paid for the past year. The -volume of transatlantic passenger traffic was again influenced by conditions prevailing in the United States and Canada, resulting in a westward movement even less than that of the previous year. On the other hand, there was a small increase in the total number of eastbound passengers. First-class and cabin travel, both westbound and eastbound, showed a further decline, but larger numbers were carried in the tourist and third classes. There was a continued falling off in the Atlantic cargo trade, particularly in the eastbound direction. Westbound conditions were not so much affected, although' carryings were reduced on: account of the operation of fewer voyages. "The Australian and New Zealand services of the, Commonwealth and Dominion Line have been carried on with reasonable success during the year under review. The improved .financial condition of the Commonwealth of Australia has been reflected in a very slight expansion of the outward cargo. The recent alteration of the NewZealand rate of exchange from £110 to £125 New Zealand to the £100 sterling will, it is feared, tend to restrict still further the imports from the; United Kingdom, 'i To cater for the homeward trades the company has been forced to dispatch, a still larper number of vessels in ballast, a fact indicative of the one-sided traffic at present carried on between, the Domiu« ions and the United Kingdom." .