THE CUNARD LINE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22293, 20 June 1934, Page 11

THE CUNARD LINE

INCREASE IN TRAVEL ANTICIPATED INVESTIGATION IN NEW ZEALAND With a view to investigating the possibilities of extending the sphere of North Atlantic steamer travel, by connections with intercolonial steamer services, Mr G. M. Warren is paying a brief visit to Dunedin in the course; oft a tour of New Zealand. Mr Warren is joint passenger manager of the Cunard Line at Liverpool, and is at present making a comprehensive world tour looking into prospects for Cnnard Line business in the North Atlantic in connection with the Union Company, the Matson Line and other transpacific steamer services. “ I have found that business in the North Island is very encouraging,” he told a Daily Times reporter yesterday, “ particularly so in the Auckland area. In the SouGi Island business does not appear to be quite so. good for the transatlantic lines, although it is true that more people are Unveiling to England this year; but they are mostly going by direct steamers by Suez and the Panama. Everything tends to show that interest in travel is increasing once more, and with all that Canada and the United States' have to show in the way of places of interest, beauty and business, 1 am, optimistic enough to believe that 1935 will show a big increase over 1934. A certain amount, however, depends on the exchange rate, which at. 25 per cent, is undoubtedly a handicap. By 1936 I 1 hope that the new Cnnard liner now known under the builders’ number of 534 will appear on the North Atlantic. I have heard that she will be called the Britannia, but I have no official information of this. She will be approximately 73.000 tons, with a length of 1029 feet and a height from, keel to masthead of 285 feet, with a speed of about 30 knots, and will re-establish the prestige of British shipping on the North Atlantic. Mr Warren added that as there was a certain amount of doubt in the mhids of some people whether big ships were really experience had proved since the war that big ships, regardless of nationality, on the North Atlantic always got the business. While there was still a little doubt as to when the United States' would really come back to prosperity he had reason to believe that it would turn the corner within the next two years. He had been in New Zealand 16 days and had only another 10 or 12 days to remain, but he had been most favourably attracted by all that the Dominion had to offer in the way of places of interest and beauty, and in such contrasts as Rotorua and Mount Cook, to mention only two of the places he bad visited. He had come out via the United States, Canada, Japan, China, Manila, Singapore and Java, and would return via the south coast of Australia, India and South Africa. Everywhere he was looking into aspects of North Atlantic travel, but not in any way with a view to the Cunard Line entering into service in any of the places he had mentioned in competition with their own steamers. Mr Warren will leave for Invercargill this morning. ,