Messrs. Burns Philp’s Reply

Islands Steamers'

Accommodation

THE article entitled “Islands Steamers’

Accommodation” published on page 24 of this issue was referred to Messrs. Burns, Philp and Co., Ltd., a Sydney. Their reply was as fellows: During the last five years we have spent over £650,000 in trying to improve the ser vice between Australia and New Guinea, and this amount of money together with all other investments in the Territory are practically controlled and owned by Aus tralian shareholders.

We have offered to expedite the service on the present contract—in other words to give more than we are paid for —but this has been turned down as it involved cutting out some of the minor ports. If our vessels ran more frequently, naturally we could give better accommodation to travellers.

The trouble seems to be that owing to the rapid development of the mining areas in Papua and the Mandated Territory, “Miner” expects the company’s vessel to be something like a concertina. He seems to infer that the company are doing nothing, but we have lately installed on our vessels talkies, swimming pools and entertainers.