May Cease

BP Service to Norfolk , Lord Howe May Cease

UNLESS the Australian Government is willing to pay a substantial subsidy to Burns Philp & Co., Ltd., the com pany will cut out its present steamship service to Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island. The Minister for External Ter ritories said, on October 7, that “the matter is being examined,”

Before the war Burns, Philp Line steamer, Morinda, ran on a frequent and regular schedule to the two islands — there was an average of two trips to these islands from Sydney in approxi mately five weeks. The service was adequately subsidised by the Australian Government, as were Island services to Papua, New Guinea and the British Solomon Islands.

During the war, all Australian shipping was taken over by the Shipping Board and subsidies lapsed. When the ships were ultimately handed back to their owners after the war, no shipping agree ments, such as had existed in relation to the above territories, were renewed.

Norfolk Island and Lord Howe, under existing post-war conditions, are barren

fields for the ship-owner. Air services from Sydney and New Zealand have skimmed the cream of the passenger trade and the carrying of cargo is a one way traffic Due to the fact that Norfolk and Lord Howe produce those products which are already grown by Australian mainland producers, they are not permitted to ex port—a state of affairs that is supported by Australian politicians who are con cerned only with the votes of mainland constituents. Add to this the fact that there are no ports or even sheltered anchorages at the islands—unloading must be done by surf boats, under dangerous conditions and often in bad weather.

Aircraft, which have done a great deal in the post-war era to end the isolation of Norfolk and Lord Howe cannot supply all the material needs of the inhabitants.

Withdrawal of their only sea connection with Australia will be a great blow to them, notwithstanding the fact that they have been promised a Government ship “sometime in the future.” Since the end of the war, BP ships have been calling there only once every three months.

There is no good reason, however, why a private shipping company should con tinue, for mere sentiment’s sake, to ser vice ports that are uneconomic. The socialist government of Australia has done nothing to ease the lot of Australian ship owners.

If subsidies were in order for Norfolk and Lord Howe before the war, they are doubly necessary to-day when Australian industrial conditions are such that the owning of ships has been reduced to little else but an unprofitable and prolonged headache.