P. AND O. STEAM NANTGATION COMPANY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7823, 16 August 1887, Page 3

P. AND O. STEAM NANTGATION COMPANY.

At Hie Ullrd half-yearly ineetinj; of the I'enfiihiitiir and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, held in London on tli« Ist of June last, the Chairman, Mr Thomas Sutherland, M.P., in moving the adoption of the repoit, referred to the loss of tlie Tasmania, remarking that although the captain, an ofliccr, and several of the crew had perished, not a single passenger's life was lost. Indeed, it was a matter for congratulation that during the long time the company had been in existence it had enjoytd singular immunity in respect of the loss of passengers' lives. After stating that though the loss of the Tasmania involved a loss of £JOO,OOO, the fluctuation of the company's siia#;s had been very insignificant owing to the prude;jt course that had been pursued in attending to matters of reserve, the Chairman inferred to the.company's new vessels, the Victoria, tlie Britannia, the Oeeana, and the Arcadia, lie said : " The Victoria and the Uritannia are being built by Messrs Caird and Co., and will be delivered considerably in advanes of contract date. T fear, but at the same time I trust I may be wrong in apprehending it, t^iat Messrs Harland and Wolff, who are contractors for the other two vessels, may be somewhat bejiini'.liand in their delivery, as they' hays been for some »l<)ie suffering from strikes among their workmen 13 P.elfast. The advent ot these four vessels (awl they will be possibly followed by more) will mark a new feature in the history of thu company, and one which I have no doubt you' will watch with the greatest inteiest. OS one thing lam perfectly sun- - that both those eminent linns of shijibuiWeis mil t»rn flut y&ssels creditable to themselves ami equajjy satisfactory to the company. One of those facts wfojeji indicates how great the uiiilertnkiiiK is which you are carrying out in connection witli your mail contract for the public is that the cost of those four vessels will be bejtween £700,000 and £800,000. For my ow.n i)Of|t I would most certainly have wished we could, have been able to conduct y,9ur business successfully and satisfactorily wjtli ".v,es,!sJfs posting half the amount of money, bij't 0w >.'"' fortunately is not the case. At our last meeting we had the pleasure to inform you that the new contract for the India nnd China mail services liiid )>wn

arranged. Since tlmt time Ihr contract has been signed, sealed, and dehveied for a period of 10 yeiir-s i"" 1 11 . 110W onl .V awaits the usual' ordeal or Loin;,' liassed through the House <>f Commons, the report states that the Australian contract has not yet been definitely settled, hut I believe I am in a position to state that since this report was actually issued the Australian contract has been delinitely settled with Her Majesty's (iovernment and the colonies— (Hear, hear)— anil I may .state that the amount, which the company will recuhc will be £85,000 per annum, which is tin: sum they already obtain, although the servece they will have to perform will necessarily be of a higher and improved character. "With regard to the period of the Australian contract, 1 am not sure that that point has been altogether finally settled, but I think I am justified in stating that it will be for a term of seven years. Perhaps, also, I ought to mention, as a matter of general information, that while our service with the Australian colonies lias always been, and is to be in the future, a fortnightly service, the importance of their commercial position entitles them to have a weekly service. This alternative service will be undertaken by the Orient Company on similar terms to ours. " ith the Orient Company (as I may say with all our competitors) we work inaspiritof tolerably amicable rivalry. I can only hopu that the result of this" new undertaking in connection with the Australian colonies will be equally satisfactory both for them and for ourselves— (Hear, hear). lho next point in our repoit is in respect to the special meeting which is to be held for the purpose of sanctioning the Supplemental Charter which has been obtained in order to correct an omission in the previous Charter in, connection with the company's borrowing-powers. I need not remind' you that there is no extension of the company's borrowing powers, which remain exactly.so far as the amount is concerned, as they were 20 years ago, but there is a certain facility granted for using those poweis should there be necessity so to do, which I believe will be of advantage to the company. The only other point which I need make any observation upon is one which in many respects is by far the most important subject of all.' I allude to the financial results of the company's working during the past year. lam not going to enter

i-.: to details, because, as you are aware, we have no figures lefore us, and therefore I shall reserve whatever observations I have to make as to such figures until our meeting in December. Hut I may mention briefly that we have a slight moderate increase in our passenger trallic. That is nne taetor in the working of the half year. Iv (he second place, we have a moderate and even a tolerable diminution in the expenditure. That is the second factor in the case, but I regret to state that the diminution in the freight receipts more

than counterbalances the advantages which we gain on the other two heads, which is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. Yon may probably recollect that from 18S3 to ISSS we had a satisfactory and steady advance in our fieight. revenue,

owing, not to the fact that affairs were improving, hut that we had enlarged the scope of our operations, and that there was plenty of cargo obtainable at the moderate rates which prevailed. But I regret to say that ISSu and ISS7 have seen a continuous diminution in the fieight traffic, owing both to the fact that freights themselves have been lower, and that in some quarters, at all events, there has not been the same amount of cargo obtainable that there was two years ago.

In illustration of this, 1 may mention that with regard to our ships despatched from London during the last six months, the cargo returns fall short by something like £15,000 or £20,000, not owing to any difference in the rates, or hardly any perceptible difference, lint simply owing to the fact that there were more ships going than there was cargo to be carried. There have, of course, been in other parts* of our trade considerable fluctuation. In some quarters there have been momentary signs of improvement. When I had the pleasure of addressing you in December last there was something like a .spin tin the Australian homeward trade, which [ regret to say died away in a miseiable fizzle. But the general verdict in connection with the Eastern trade during the last IS months or two years in that it is lamentably overdone. I most heartily wish il were in my power to make a more encouraging statement on this subject than I am able to do, but, as I have often pointed out here, the rapid growth of British tonnage has been altogether too great for the development of the trade. It has far exceeded it, and Ihe shoe pinches in a remarkable way on those lines in which we are interested, viz., on what are called the regular lines, in which every new outsider who conies in takes away from those who already have not pnoiigh for themselves. lam sorry to say that this mischief is not by any means confined to competition among British ships. At the present moment, and for many months, we have been feeling the effect of the recent development of foreign competition on our trade. The now lines which have been started by various

French, German, and Italian companies to all parts of the East have necessarily affected us in a disadvantageous way. I am not going to dwell upon this subject, because I have now no figures to speak on before me ; but when I have an opportunity — I hope in December next — I will treat'of those matters in detail There is no doubt about this fact, that in shipping business at the present moment there is a perpetual struggle going on. It is assuredly a ease of the survival of the fittest. I feel from personal experience that there is no rest from continued toil and continued opposition, and to the most successful the success is only veiy moderate. That, gentlemen, is the record probably of most trpdes of the countiy in the present day ; hut most assuredly it is with regard to'tlic shipping trade in which we are engaged. Your directors are fully alive, I trust and believe, in every way to the difficulty of the task they have before them ; but I hope that in the future as in the past, by carefully watching yony interests, by a proper degree of enterprise, combined with a due amount of prudence," we may be able to contrive for you a successful result. (Applause.) f now lieg to move that the report be adopted." The Kight Hon. E. P. Bouverie : I beg leave to second the motion. The resolution was carried unanimously. The Chairman : 1 have how to move, [ " That a dividend for the half-year ending 31st March last at the rate of r> per cent, per annum, as recommended in the report, be now declared, and that payment of the same be made, free of income tax, on and after the 10th June." Mr John Corner seconded the resolution, which was put and carried unanimously.