PANAMA CANAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 288, 6 December 1933, Page 6

PANAMA CANAL

MORE POPULAR WITH SHIPS STERLING AIEETS DUES EASIER [ Per Pre»3 Association. ] WELLINGTON, Dec. 5. For over two years now practically all regular cargo vessels leaving New Zealand for England have proceeded via Cape Horn, and a number ot vessels, both laden and in ballast, have also conic out to New Zealand \ia the Cape of Good Hope. In both cases the reason was the same—to avoid paying the Panama Canal dues in depreciated currency. After England went off the gold standard in 1931, sterling fell con-

siderably in terms of the American do! lar, and the cost of the Panama Canal duos increased. Recently, with the fall in the American dollar, sterling has risen above parity in terms of the dollar. The tendency is now for cargo vessels to use the canal once again. The first vessel to be diverted from the Horn route to the canal was the Port Huon, which left Auckland last Thursday. The Blue Star line motorship Tuscan Star, which left Wellington on Saturday for London, is also proceeding via the Canal, and now the route of tho steamer Cumberland to leave Auckland next Thursday has been changed from via tho Horn to via the Canal.

The Cape Horn route Home is about 500 miles longer than that via the Fan ama Canal, and vessels proceeding that way take from two to three days more. Coming out via the Cape of Good Hope means about a week’s extra steaming.