SHIPPING

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 March 1926, Page 7

SHIPPING

HIGH WATER, March 6—2.55 a.m. ; 3.20 p.m. DEPTH OB BAR. The depth on the bar and river at high water yesterday was : —Bar, 23ft. ; river, 20ft. arrived. Nil. SAILED. March s—Regulus,5—Regulus, s.s., 232 tons (Hay), midnight, for Picton. IN PORT. Kaitangata. Kaimai, Ihumata. EXPECTED ARRIVALS. Alexander, Wellington, to-day. ReguluS, Picton, early. Waimea, Onehuriga, early. Kittawa, Wellington, early. < Orepuki, Lyttelton, early. PROJECTED DEPARTURES. Kaimai, Wellington, to-night. Alexander, Wanganui, early. Kaitangata, Melbourne, early. Ihumata, Melbourne, early. SHIPPING NOTES. The Kaitangata is expected to sail on Monday, timber laden, for Melbourne. The Kittawa was expected to sail from Wellington yesterday for Greymouth direct.

The Kaimai is loading coal and timber for return to Miramar and Wellington, and is expected te sail tonight. . The Ihumata is loading timber for Melbourne, and sails on Monday. The Alexander is due to-day from Wellington, via Nelson and Westport, with general cargo. After discharge she proceeds to Westport to load for Wanganui. The Orepuki is due from Lyttelon and Timaru early next week for Nelson, Westport and Greymouth. The Regulus sailed last night with a cargo of coal for Picton. She leaves Picton on Monday, and Wellington on Tuesday, for Nelson, Westport and Greymouth, with general cargo. AMERICAN MERGER ? (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) SAN FRANCISCO. March 4. Officials of Matson Navigation Company, which operates most of the vessels running between San Francisco and Hawaiian ports, announced to-day that negotiations are in progress for the purchase of the Oceanic Steamship Company, whose three . steamers (Sonoma, Sierra and Ventura) ply. between Australia, Pago Pago and San Francisco. The Oceanic Company holds the mail subsidy from the United States Government. The Hawaiaan traffic centres upon the transportation of sugar molasses, oil and fruit. The Matson Company interests are in fact identical with the large system of Hawaiian plantations. The extension of the Company’s activities to Australia, whither one of the Company’s principal officials is expected to go shoitly, has aroused considerable interest," and there is much speculation as to whether’ it forecasts the augmentation of the present service between the United States Pacific coast and Australia.

LATER. Mr. William Roth, general manager ol the Matson Line, stated that no negotiations are pending or projected, and that the report is the idlest sort of rumour. The officials of the Oceanic Company also said their company had not been approached on the deal. Other official sources, that could not be quoted, said, however, that preliminaries for the purchase had been, entered into. SCHOONER’S SAFETY. ' (Per Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, March 5. Word has been received by Mr. Anderson (Minister of Marine), by radio from Chatham Islands, that the missing schooner France arrived at Pitt Island. She was prevented from reaching Stewart Island by heavy gales. She is proceeding shoitly to Waitangi ir. the Chathams, and thence to Auckland. PROPOSED NEW LINE. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, March 5. Shipping circles are not inclined, to take the big and faster ship scheme too lightly, but,declare that they are not alarmed. They assert that ships of the size and as speedy as proposed could not posibly pay in the Australian trade, and they recall the. Imperial Shipping Committee’s examination of the subject and its conclusion, that sixteen knots is the utmost average speed economically possible in view of the press the opinion that a faster line nature of th etrade offering. Some exwould only be possible at an enormous loss, which would either kill the new company or necessitate heavy subsidies from the Australian taxpayer.