BIG SHIPPING SCHEME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13095, 7 February 1906, Page 6

BIG SHIPPING SCHEME.

WALES AND THE COLONIES.

HUGE TURBINE STEAMERS

ORDERED.

AN ENGLISH SYNDICATE.

Particulars were received in Sydney by the last English mail, of the influential English syndicate, which has been formed for the establishment of a first-class steamship service between South Wales and the colonies. The scheme has matured to such an extent that the sen-ice will be inaugurated during the present year. The question of an improved and direct communication between the Bristol Channel ports and the colonies has been receiving the attention of Cardiff shipowners, dockowners, and importers for some yea-re past. All attempts, however, made to attract existing .steamship lines serving the colonies to call at Cardiff, and make it a centre for the distribution of colonial produce, have failed, and the purpose of the present scheme is to establish a service that will make South Wales much less dependent for its colonial produce on English ports than it is at present. The details of the scheme have not yet been divulged, but it is understood that itinvolves the construction at an early date of at least three or four huge turbine steamships, of 15,000 tons register, with accommodation foi 2000 passengers, and an extensive capacity for the transport of colonial produce. Specifications for the great liners have already been prepared, and tenders are being invited for their construction. Several Cardiff gentlemen—including Mr. W. J. Tatem, one of the largest and most successful shipowners— connected with the scheme, which it is estimated will involve an expenditure of about £500.000. Ample accommodation will be provided for the new service at the Cardiff new South Dock, where two large warehouses have already been constructed: but Barry and Avoumouth —where another large dock is under construction—are already mentioned as likely to compete for the trade. A question of considerable importance in connection with a scheme such as thal-oiow in the course of execution is (says an exchange) that of railway rates. It is well known that nothing has hitherto prejudiced "Cardiff" claims as a port of call for the leading Atlantic and Eastern Colonial steamship companies so much as the preferential treatment accorded by railway companies, and under more favourable conditions there is no reason whatever why the port of Cardiff should not be made • 0 great passenger as we'd as a produce distribution centre, nob only for South Wales but also for the Midlands. There is no doubt that the new line will meet with considerable competition, for among the lines already serving the colonies are:—Canada: The Allan, the Dominion, and the Canadian-Pacific. Jamaica: The Elder-Dempster line. And South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand : The Federal. Union-Castle, Aberdeen. Shaw. Savill, and Albion. Canadian-Australian, Hould'-r Brothers. Elder-Dempster. Orient-Pacific, and the Peninsular and Oriental.