Shipping in the Atlantic.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7716, 19 January 1905, Page 3

Shipping in the Atlantic.

Hit the War of Rates Cost LONDON, Jan. 17. The Atlantic war of rates cost the shipping companies half a million. It ia regarded as a victory for the Cunard line, which retains the Hungarian emigrant traffic, worth about £IOO,OOO per annum.. The Cunard Company has for some time had a serious difference with other Transatlantic companies. In particular, there has been ■ a dispute with the White Star line as to classification of th|a Oceanic and others of the American Combme fleet. ''The ultimate upshot/' says a recent Lotm flon paper, '.ls being anxinusly tßsj-. cussed in Liverpool shipping circles, *• where a decision in a certain dir r action will have obvious consequences as calamitous as those into which the rate law has plunged passenger freights'. Assuming that the difference between the Cunard and White Star, -is not amic a bly adjusted, and the war continues the British lines, it is a moral certainty, notwithstanding the Berlin agreement between the Cunard and the Continental lines, that the latr ter would again find themselves, as a matter of sclfrilefence, arrayed in compfetitive opposition to the British. lines. On all hands the hope is expressed that this calamity may be averted, jln the meantime n<j authority has been given to agents to advance steerage fares to the old £5 10s to £6 10s standard. The only change in the situation from that which obtained ibefore the Berlin agreement is that the Continental lines have stopped booking steerago passengers ,at the cheap rates, ' although they have not commenced to charge the advanced rates. None of the British Mnes, save the Anchor and the Allan, have increased rates, and the two named have put up third-class fares 10s."