NEW SHIPPING LINE

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 122, 18 May 1932, Page 7

NEW SHIPPING LINE

LYTTELTON TO AUSTRALIA TWO “ LUXURY” STEAMERS “Luxury liners” now running between England and South America will be used on the new South Island Pacific Shipping Company of New Zealand, Limited, according to Mr H. V. Johansen, managing director of the company.

Two of these vessels, with only first and second-class accommodation, are to be secured and a weekly service is to be run, he -said in an interview in Christchurch. Lyttelton will be the terminal port and vessels will leave for Sydney and Melbourne alternately. The company had searched the world for the most suitable type of vessel and had had the choice of 132 offered, said Mr Johansen.

The two to be secured w r cre of 850 p tons could do 17 knots and were twinscrew oil-burners. The vessels were the most modern of their kind, designed for giving speedy and comfortable travel for passengers. The vessels would be repainted white on arrival in New Zealand and renamed, probably as the Alameda and the Astoria. Later a third vessel would be secured as a stand-by to take over the running when one of the regular liners had to lay up for overhaul. The company desired to provide quick and convenient travel between the South Island and Australia at a reasonable cost and in comfortble vessels. Vessels would leave Lyttelton each week and travel via Port Chalmers and Bluff to Sydney and Melbourne alternately. Leaving Lyttelton on Friday the passenger would last in Sydney the following Wednesday, making the whole journey by sea. It would be possible, however, for Canterbury passengers to travel to Bluff on Sunday by the railway and go aboard there on Monday morning. BOON TO S.T. This, service he was sure, would be a great convenience to South Islanders wishing to travel to Australia, as it disposed of the necessity for a. journey to the North Island before embarkation. It would also appeal, he was confident, to many Australians coming to New Zealand, particularly as in the summer it was the intention of the company to divert the vessels to Milford Sound to enable passengers to visit that popular resort.

Out of the new service New Zealand should gain much in the way of tourist traffic from Australia. Useful contracts had been made with agents all over Austrlia, and it was certain that many travellers to New Zealand would be diverted to its route.

I In addition the company would provide a cargo service that would be of great advantage to South Island importers, who would be able to secure goods from Australia, direct, instead of having to meet the delays and expense associated with transhipments from the North Island.

The company was a New Zealand enterprise. The crew would number about 600 and al] would be New Zealanders, and all provisions would be bought in the Dominion, entailing an expenditure of about £lOO.OOO a year. Sir Charles Statham, Speaker of the House of Representatives, is a member of the directorate, and Mr W. Chambers, managing director of Chambers and Company, Australia, and Mr W. H. Swanton, managing director of William Crosby Pty., of Australia, are other members.