PACIFIC SHIPS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 26 January 1939, Page 5

PACIFIC SHIPS

PROPOSAL REVIVED I LOWER PRICE OF STEEL CONSIDERATION IN BRITAIN LONDON, 29th December. The report that proposals for subsidising the building of “certain ships for operation on Empire routes” are to be put before the British Cabinet by Mr Oliver Stanley, President of the Board of Trade, coincides with the reduction by 10 per cent, in the price or steel for ship plates. Mr Stanley, it is stated, has communicated with Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with a view to two ships being built for the Canadian-Australasian Line. They would be ships of about 25,000 lons for passengers and cargo and would be fast enough to compete with subsidised rivals. If built in Britain they would give work to British yards for more than two years. The Imperial Shipping Committee, two years ago, presented a report which showed that it was unlikely that the earnings of- the proposed new ships could cover operating and capital costs. Since the figures on which the committee based its estimates were published, shipbuilding costs have risen by *SO per cent., and the chairman of the P. and O. and the Canadian Pacific Lines, the joint owners of the Canadian-Aus-tralasian Line, expressed the opinion in August that it was not economic to build the ships. The two new ships proposed would carry from 750 to 800 passengers—first, cabin and third class—and 4000 tons of cargo, with ample refrigerator space and would be capable of running at 21 knots. They would sail from Vancouver and Victoria to San Francisco. Honolulu, Suva. Auckland, Sydney and and Melbourne. It was hinted in August that an alteration in the cost of steel might possibly be followed by a reopening of negotiations concerning the building of the vessels for the pacific. Since the shipping companies have rejected the increased estimates for these vessels, it is'generally believed that the next move will come from the shipbuilders.