TOA To Liquidate

Oceanic Airways Ltd. Has*

gone into liquidation, and its* future is uncertain. It is still J carrying on the service to LordJ Howe Island —the only one left of; the several trans-ocean services it: pioneered—but this may be with drawn.

Total liabilities are £240,947. They in clude: Clan Steamship Line, £109,738;; F. W. Hughes Pty., Ltd., £62,685; Mac— arthur Shipping Co., £20,075; E. A..

Coghlan, Ltd., £10,000; Air Flights (Training), Ltd., £17,667; Vacuum Oill Co., £7,425; Harvey Trinder, Ltd.,, £2,342.

Assets are not far short of total debts..

They include: 3 Solents. £llO,OOO : 3f Hythes, £6,000; spare parts, £50,762;; spare engines and props, £32,000; ©then fixed assets, £24,800.

The Co. was started soon after the war by aviator Captain Brian!

Monckton with three Sunderlandf flyingboats. Services to Lord Howe,, New Caledonia, New Hebrides andi Solomons were established, andt many charter flights undertaken.

Other craft were bought. A NSW coastal service from Sydney toe Grafton was pioneered, and then a direct service from Sydney to Ho bart, The Co. met very keen compe tition from the big Australian C 0.,.

Qantas; and it had misfortunes when its head, Captain Monckton,; was charged with deliberately des troying a Qantas flying boat, and: further misfortune when a new/ Solent, which Captain Monckton; was bringing out from Europe, was lost at Malta. Captain Monckton was acquitted of the charge, but the incident caused disorganisation.!

Much new capital was introduced in 1950-51, especially by the Clan Line.

The Co. then started a Sydney- Moresby service, in direct compe tition with Qantas, but had more misfortune —two Solents were badly smashed in the Brisbane River — and the service ceased recently.

Captain Monckton left the Co: several months ago, and there has. been a series of developments whicU has ended in decision to liquidate: