GREAT SHIPPING PROJECT

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12911, 27 February 1906, Page 7

GREAT SHIPPING PROJECT

TURBINE STEAMERS FROM WALES ' TO THE COLONIES. 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 service 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 Btt«ntion of Cardiff sbip-ewners. dock-

and importers for some "time 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 rthe 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 it involves the construction at an early date of at least three or four huge turbine steamships, of 15,000 tons register, with accommodation! for 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 Sir W. J. Tatem, one of the largest and most successful shipowners—are 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 Avonmouth—where another large dock is under construction—aTe already mentioned as likely to compete for the trade. A question of considerable importance in connection with a scheme such as that now in the course of execution is (savs an exchange) that of railway rates. It is well known that nothing * has hitherto prejudiced Cardiff's claim as a port of call for the leading Atlantic and Eastern Colonial steamship companies so much as. the preferential treatment accorded by rail-way companies, and under more favourable conditions there is no reason whatever why the port- of Cardiff should not be made a great passenger as well as a produce distribution centre, not only for South Wales but also for the ilidlands.