PACIFIC PASSENGERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 327, 12 April 1928, Page 9

PACIFIC PASSENGERS

PROMOTING THE TRAFFIC SHIP LINES TO CONFER (Australian Press Association) Reed. 9.5 a.m. WASHINGTON, Wed. The United States Shipping Board has approved an agreement between the Matson Navigation Company, the Canadian-Australasian Royal Mail Line, and the Union Steam Ship Company of New ealand, which creates a conference to promote passenger traffic between the Pacific Coast ports of the United States and Australia and New Zealand, and to inetroiiange traffic between the member lines.

“This is a movement to better the transport system/’ said an Auckland shipping man who was shown the above cable to-day. “It will put the passenger in a more advantageous position, for he will be able to elect to travel by any line across the Pacific. “Conferences like the one referred to,” he said, "had existed for many years in America and in England, and this was an attempt to make the arrangement world-wide. It was a new thing for the Americans to adopt the policy in the Pacific. There was no idea behind it of taking ‘somehting out of the travelling public’; the arrangement would give it more facilities for travel.

"The passenger might now come to Australia by the Sierra or the Ventura, of the Matson Line, and then perhaps be lured into visiting New’ Zealand by the idea that he could go back by the Aorangi or Niagara. The result was a more comprenesvie tour. “The promotion of more traffic by the provision of bigger ships was being undertaken by the lines. The Union Steam Ship Company was alreaay building a ship larger than the Aorangi, and the Matson Line had recently made a big purchase of the United States Shipping . Board ships. These would tend to bring Continental visitors further afield.