THE "LUCKENBACH" STEAMERS.

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2912, 26 October 1916, Page 6

THE "LUCKENBACH" STEAMERS.

HARBOUR BOARD DISCUSSION. The Vacuum Oil Company, being aggrieved at certain statements made at a meeting of the Harbour Board regarding tho ownership of a steamer which came out here under charter by the Vacuum Oil Company, tho Edgar Luckenbacli, have written to the Harbour Board, and tho letter, or rather two or three letters, forwarded on tho subject earns before the board last night. The letters stated that tlie Luckenbach Line was controlled by native-born Americans, that it was financed by American capital, that tho company was on the British white llstj and that it was a signatory to the British bunker agreement^ "More wordy than convincing," said the chairman by way of comment after the letters had been read. _ "Anyhow, I don't appreciate the action of the Americans sending out ships' hero flaunting German names in our faces." Mr. Fletcher: It's a German line. A member: Who is the agent for this lino?

Mr. Fletcher: Nobody. They can't get anybody to take it up. ' Mr. Wright said the statements in tho letters were simply ex'parte statements, and he asked whether-there was any way of testing them—of ascertaining, for instance, whether the Luckenbach Company was a signatory to the British bunker agreement. It was , a fact that an impression prevailed in New Zealand that the company was German, and when a question was asked in the House about it last session the question caused considerable embarrassment.

Mr. J. G. Cobbe said he presumed that the letters were the outcome of a. question ho had asked at tho ■ board meeting. It seemed to .him only natural to assume that the company was German. "If," he said, "a man is called Herman von Bismarck, he is iirno danger of being mistaken for an Irishman. (Laughter.) If the man is called Patrick Murphy, no one will call him an Austrian. And if ho is called Donald Mac Donald no one will say he is a Turk. (Laughter.). ... It seems to me tht tho letter is only an attempt) to make use of an opportunity for— — A member: Just an opportunity for advertising. (Hear, hear.) A member: What is tho question, Mr. Chairman?

The Chairman: Well, tlio question is that tho Vacuum Oil Company asked for a hearing, and they bavo had it. A. member: No action bo taken, Tho Chairman: Is tho decision, then, that 110 action bo taken? Voices: Aye.