Teal Claims Big Profit This Year

Finance Position Not Clear When

The following appeared in Sydney ewspapers on March 2: Tasman Empire Airways Ltd. is vpected to “get out of the red” fter many years with a profit of lore than £ 50,000 this year.

Last year, this joint Australia eiu Zealand Government Co. lost lore than £lOO,OOO.

It saved thousands of pounds since discarded Solent flying-boats.

TEAL’s Sydney representative had )t received a copy of the state ent and was unable to say hether this was another way of mouncing that TEAL’s loss for 54 was £lOO,OOO, or whether “this sar” meant the financial year 54-55, which ends March 31. our efforts on two past occasions to interpret the (to us) completely conflicting annual itements which have emanated )m Wellington, Canberra, and SAL’s Headquarters in Auckland, i have been told by TEAL that r interpretation has been in rrect. So far we have never yet *n. from any source, a clear-cut itement of the exact cost to the istralian and New Zealand tax ?er of the Coral Route Service. i do not even know whether Aus ilia pays any of that cost. On per she does —but TEAL’s blicity office has stated that the it of that route is borne entirely New Zealand.

Statements are released on Dollar rnings, Working Profits, and erall Losses. One year we pub led a TEAL statement on Coral

Route dollar earnings, and assumed that this meant profits. Later, a statement giving the losses in that year arrived.

We then accepted the view that it was one thing to earn dollars and another thing for them to represent a profit. It appeared to us that those dollars had actually cost a lot more than they would have cost on the Sydney black market.

But TEAL said we were wrong— they were profit. After that, we gave up.

As far as the Coral Route is con cerned (and that is the sector in which we are interested) it always has seemed to us that in comput ing the cost of that service to the taxpayers (whoever they are) account must be taken of the cost of all the Civil Aviation Authority radio, fuelling, meteorological, and airfield costs involved. These surely should be charged to the Coral Route Service, as only TEAL uses them east of Nadi. We are informed that such costs are not included in any TEAL account —except the com paratively small landing fees which they pay.

Auckland-Norfolk Service

Tasman Empire Airways will take over the Auckland-Norfolk Island weekly air service from NZ National Airways as from March 1, reported NZ newspapers on February 28.

TEAL’s Sydney representative said that the newspaper reports were premature, as no public announce ment had been made by TEAL.