Acute Shipping Shortage In P-Ng
p. 93 · Read in the full issue
A new company, New Guinea-Australia Line Pty. Ltd., has been formed in Papua-New Guinea to direct the operations of several ships on the Australia-New Guinea run. The company is part of the China Navigation complex and is owned by John Swire and Sons Ltd. and Ocean Steamships Co. Ltd., both of London.
The ships the NGAL will control immediately are the side-loading Island Chief, the Coral Chief and the Marsina, ex-Papuan Chief, which will again become the Papuan Chief. A fourth ship is to be chartered from China Navigation, which will be converted to side-loading like the others.
Coral Chief calls at Port Moresby and Samarai, ex-Sydney and Brisbane; Island Chief calls at Lae. Madang and Rabaul; and the Papuan Chief at Rabaul, alternating each voyage to Kavieng and Honiara.
These schedules will be revised when the fourth ship is chartered; probably Kieta and Wewak being added.
The Burns Philp fleet withdrawal and the change of schedules for Karlander have caused an acute shipping shortage in the territory.
And lack of wharf space adds to the problems (see p. 95).