Princess With A 'New Dimension'

P & O’s new 20,300-tonne cruise liner Pacific Princess will offer 10 South Pacific cruises during her first Australian cruising season.

Pacific Princess will arrive in Australia on December 18 and cruise the Islands until May next year, calling at Tahiti, Fiji, Tonga, New Hebrides, American Samoa and the Solomons.

She will be the first new P & O passenger ship to be introduced into Australia since the Canberra arrived in June, 1961, on her maiden voyage.

According to Mr Kevin Mitchell, director of passenger services, “Pacific Princess offers a new dimen sion in sea holidays for Australians.

“We are very proud of our new ship and I am sure that those who take the opportunity to travel in her will enjoy the luxurious comfort and superb facilities”.

Pacific Princess has two swimming pools. One pool deck has a sliding glass roof, or solardome, which can create an indoor pool area whenever required. She also has two saunas, a massage room, a gymnasium, four nightclubs, cosy lounges and galleries, a theatre, gift shop, boutique, library, music room, card rooms, beauty salon and a barber shop.

There are open decks for sports such as quoits, shuffle-board and golf practice at the nets—or just relaxing in the sun.

The new ship, fully air-conditioned and fitted with stabilisers, can carry 640 passengers in 320 cabins, each of which has a private bathroom or shower. Most cabins have twin beds and some can be used as three-berth or four-berth units. They have multi channel radio and music systems, individual air-conditioning control,

telephone and wall-to-wall carpet, and many can be converted into comfortable sitting rooms by day.

Special suites have their own re frigerator and separate sitting room.

Pacific Princess’s first cruise from Australia will be a Christmas and New Year cruise. The ship will leave Sydney on December 19 for 15 nights, calling at Suva, Vava’u and Nukualofa (both in Tonga) Auck land and Bay of Islands (Russell), arriving back in Sydney on January 2.

Most of the cruises will be be tween 12 and 15 nights duration.

The exception will be a 25-night cruise, leaving Sydney on March 11 and calling at Noumea, Lautoka, Suva, Pago Pago, Bora Bora, Papeete, Vava’u, Nukualofa and Auckland. Fares will range from $483 for a 12-night cruise.

Qantas' Chief

Defends Airlines

Captain Bert Ritchie, general manager of Qantas, effectively turned back criticism of airlines’ fares when he addressed the annual Pacific Area Travel Association conference in Sydney.

International airlines had cut South Pacific fares nearly as low as they could go, yet charges for hotels, rental cars and other related services in the regions were, on average, the highest in the world, he said. The rest of the travel industry constantly told airlines to reduce fares by 10 to 30 per cent, but if hire car com panies, etc, did what they told the airlines to do, they would go broke.

Arabs Stall Over

Tonga's Bulk Carrier

King Taufa’ahau Tupon of Tonga, late in March was close to clinching a deal with Bahrain to buy a bulk carrier, but Bahrain “cried off” tem porarily just before it was due to make a firm decision. The king and his party, which included the Acting Minister of Finance Dr Sione Tapa, Secretary of the Government Mr Taniela Tufui, and the general manager of Pacific Navigation, Cap tain C. Hill-Willis, discussed loan finance with leading officials in Bahrain, after which Bahrain asked for 10 days to consider the matter.

Just before the 10th day, Bahrain advised Tonga it wanted longer, and asked for two or three weeks. The king was as optimistic as usual about some of his ambitious proposals when he returned to Tonga. He said the Bahrain leaders, including the emir, Isa bin Sulman al-Khalifa, were favourably impressed with Tonga’s plan.

Tonga wanted to buy a 65,000 ton

deadweight carrier. It would be chartered to an Australian mining company to carry ore to Europe and the US (via Suez), and coal from the US to Japan (via Panama) on the return trip. It would carry the Tongan flag and a Tongan crew. The king said Tonga was interested in a new Norwegian-owned bulk carrier.

If several Arab countries were in volved in the loan it would help to establish the credit-worthiness of Pacific Navigation and Tonga in Future bulk purchases. Tonga would eventually have several bulk carriers.

Services Swap Might

Bring Airline A Profit

American Airlines, which swapped ts routes to the South Pacific with s an-Am in return for some Pan Am outes across the Caribbean, is still vaiting for the US Government’s ipproval of the swap.

According to its president and :hairman, Mr A. V. Casey, Ameri an Airlines might make a profit if jovernment approval is given. The Jrline made a profit of !U520,446,000 last year but if the conomy does not improve and fuel irice increases remain no profit is xpected this year.

There was a net loss in February if $11,538,000, revenue increasing iy 4.6 per cent against a rise in perating expenses of 9.3 per cent.

»Ng Shipowners

Day Cut Services

Papua New Guinea shipowners ave warned that they may have to ut services between the main ports, blowing rejection by the PNG ’abinet of an increase in freight harges. In January, the PNG Ship ing Association asked the Transport )epartment for increases between lain ports.

Mr John Edwards, chairman of le association, said the cabinet had iven no reason for its decision.

The decision caused great concern i the industry, he said, and services ould deteriorate unless it was re oked. Operating costs had risen ramatically since the last tariff diedule which was fixed in July, .part from a rise in fuel prices, ris ig wages led to increased stevedor ig costs, and the costs of vessel irveys. Cuts in services were poss )le on less profitable routes.

The Freight Tariff Committee, smprising representatives of the NG Shippers Council, the Asso iated Chambers of Commerce, the Apartment of Finance and the ransport Department recommended i February that an increase be ranted. The recommendation was iter vetoed.

Hardship Allowance

For Fiji Officers . . .

The Fiji Marine Department’s sea going officers will get an allowance of 20 per cent of their salaries as compensation for the hardships which go with the job. There’s a limit to the allowance, however, of $BOO and it will not be paid to officer-cadets or officers temporarily on shore.

The hardships, according to the arbitrator, Mr Jai Reddy, who made the award, include long hours of work, absence from family and home, danger in sailing in relatively difficult waters in small ships in all conditions and difficult living con ditions.

Seamen employed by the depart ment went on strike last year to sup port their demand for a special allowance. The Fiji Public Service Association claimed, on their behalf, allowances ranging from $605 a year for a man earning $1,323 to $2,453 for a man earning $3,379. . . . AND A PAY RISE

For The Dockworkers

Stevedoring companies in Fiji and the Fiji Waterside Workers and Sea men’s Union took only two hours towards the end of March to reach agreement on a wages increase—22 per cent to give hundreds of dock workers a minimum pay rate of $1 an hour.

The increase, which took effect on April 1, makes the dockers the highest-paid unskilled and semi skilled workers in Fiji. Permanent dock labourers got a minimum of 94c an hour and the top rate is $1.13 an hour for manifest clerks.

There was a pay-off, however. The union agreed to changes in work shift times, which, Mr Harry Kiss, chairman of the Fiji Employers’ Con sultative Association’s shipping com mittee, said, should enable the com panies to get more work done. The new arrangements would give dock workers more leisure time but they should be fitter and the employers would expect greater productivity.

The pay rise will mean higher stevedoring charges which had not at that time been calculated.

Better Cargo Service

For Norfolk Island

The Union Steam Ship Company of NZ had good news for Norfolk Island at the beginning of March, a greatly-improved cargo service be tween New Zealand and the island with its modern, fully-refrigerated ship, the 2,700-ton Luhesand.

The service—once every 30 days— was scheduled to begin in late March, and will take over the irregular ser vice given by the company’s Holm burn, which has been retired as the final phase in the USS’s plan to re organise its services, using the 3,500ton crane ship Karepo, the Luhe sand, and the container ship Union South Pacific.

The USS announcement comes only weeks after the Noumea-based company, Compagnie des Chargeurs Caledoniens (CCC), announced it was starting a new 28-day service, Auckland - Sydney - Norfolk Island with the 963-ton He de Lumiere.

The USS’s foreign trade department manager, Mr S. Caspari, who visited Norfolk in February to arrange the

new service, said the upgrading of the service to the island was the final step in a two-year programme de signed to bring his company’s Island shipping to a high standard of re liability and efficiency.

It had been decided on long before CCC’s announcement of a new ser vice to Norfolk.

The Luhesand is equipped with cargo-handling gear which will im prove the island’s lighterage opera tions and prevent damage to cargo being transferred from the ship to the lighters.

Air New Zealand

Spreads Its Wings

Air New Zealand has embarked on an expansion programme which will make 1975 the year of its most am bitious development at a time when most international airlines are tight ening their belts because of costs.

In the last 10 years, Air NZ has had a growth rate of 720 per cent in passenger capacity and more than 2000 per cent in cargo capacity.

This year the airline will expand by a third.

With the acquisition of three new DC 10 wide-bodied jets, giving 730 additional seats, it is capable of earning 5NZ250,000 extra daily.

Much of the extra capacity will be needed for the new service to London operated in conjunction with British Airways which will take over the New Zealand aircraft at Los Angeles and fly them to London via the North Pole.

Dockers Leapfrog

At Honiara

Masters of two ships in Honiara recently staged a combined operation to allow one of them to discharge its cargo and get back to New Zea land.

The Capitaine Bougainville, over due on its return trip, could not get alongside the wharf till the Lossie bank unloaded. The masters agreed that the Capitaine Bougainville could tie up to the Lossiebank and unload cargo to the Lossiebank and then to the wharf. Lighters on the open side of the Capitaine Bougain ville helped to unload.

It was the first time such a manoeuvre had been tried in the BSIP. The captains agreed to it when they were told of the huge cost in volved in keeping the Capitaine Bougainville at Honiara till it was able to berth.

It was rather a risky operation as no tugs were used, but it went ahead smoothly, in 9i hours.

A New Man

For Polynesia

Mr Richard Lyon (34) Air New Zealand’s charter officer in Auckland, has been seconded to Polynesian

Airlines to replace Mr Murray Robert son as traffic and sales mana ger based in Apia.

Mr Lyon (left) will take up his appoint me n t within the next three months, and Mr Robertson

will then return to New Zealand.

Mr Lyon first joined Air New Zealand in 1957 from secondary school. During the next eight years he worked in tariffs, reservations, traffic handling and commercial plan ning.

In 1965 he left the company to operate his own business, returning in 1971.

Russians Are

Studying Fiji's Reefs

A Russian survey ship has arrived in Fiji to study reef ecology and the history of the formation and structure of coral reefs. The survey will be carried out by the Far East Science Centre of the Soviet Academy of Science in Vladivostok.

The ship, Kallisto, with a comple ment of 75, including 29 scientists, will spend much of its time in Lau, where the water is clear and un polluted.

Before going to Fiji, the Kallisto spent some time surveying Scot Reef, about 600 miles south-west of Dar win. Dr Charles Phipps, an asso ciate professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Sydney University, joined the Kallisto in Suva.

Png Govt's $12,000

Gift To Shipping Co

The PNG Government has given $ 12,000 to the Milne Bay Shipping Co Pty Ltd to set up a village-based boat-building industry owned by the villagers.

The Minister for Agriculture, Dr John Guise, said the government re cognised the importance of actively helping and encouraging the local boat-building industry. Such an in dustry was vital in areas where sea transport was needed to carry local produce.

The company, soon after it was registered, received firm orders for three boats.