PACIFIC SHIPPING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22596, 8 December 1936, Page 8

PACIFIC SHIPPING

A favourable view of the prospects for the successful operation of an improved mail and passenger shipping service between Western Canada, Australia and New Zealand is taken by the Imperial Shipping Committee, a summary of whose report is published to-day. Naturally its conclusions are carefully qualified because the traffic response to the proposed service must be speculative and depend also on future world economic conditions. Assuming a certain increase in traffic, the committee considers "there need not be a large, if indeed any, loss on operating." The important question is whether "operating" costs are intended to include profits and capital charges on the two ships contemplated, costing £1,250,000 each. Interest and depreciation calculated at 7 per cent would require £175,000 annually, a sum considerably less than the subsidy of £250,000 suggested from the five Governments concerned—British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and Fijian. This is a point, however, requiring official clarification and it is also notable that the committee has not discussed the subsidy issue, confining itself to the questions in its order of reference. Its conclusions are reached on the assumption that a "superior service" is provided, a "more modest endeavour" being considered ineffective, and on the further assumption that the Union Company's San Francisco-Welling-ton-Sydney service is permanently abandoned. The idea is to enlarge and concentrate on the Vancouver route. The proposed service would be monthly, catering for a large passenger list with ships comparable with the Matson liners and operating at a speed of 21 knots. The schedule would be similar to the existing Vancouver service, with the addition of San Francisco as a port of call on the southbound run and making Melbourne instead of Sydney the southern terminal. These additions should make an important difference to the passenger traffic offering, and no less so the class of ship proposed. Several important points await definition, particularly the attitude of the five British Governments concerned, but the report offers a hopeful basis for action to end the existing inferiority of British services in the Pacific passenger trade.