Tonga shipping line

Fair winds forecast for Tonga shipping line

By staffman NORMAN BAXTER

Tonga, at last, is on the way to op erating a viable international ship ping line, backed by the experience of P & O, Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd, a Danish company and advice from a Sydney business consultancy. This month a new company, Pacific Navigation of Tonga, starts a five weekly service from ports along the Australian east coast to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, with the Kalia, 9,150 tonnes.

Pacific Navigation of Tonga has no financial or any other connection with Pacific Navigation Co Ltd, which is owned by the Tonga Government. It is owned by the Tonga Government and the J.

Lauritzen group, of Copenhagen, with the government holding the major interest.

Cargo handling gear includes two 3.05 tonne cranes and derricks, eight 5.08 tonne derricks, one 20.3 tonne derrick and one 25.4 tonne derrick. She will be crewed by Tongans, and will also be used as a training ship for Tongans. The master is Captain A. M. Christie, of Sydney, who has four non-Tongans among his officers.

The Beaufort Shipping Agency Co, of Sydney, is managing agent in Australia. In Tonga, of course, Pacific Navigation of Tonga, will be the agents, while in Fiji and Samoa, Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd are agents.

Mr Peter Lamborn, of Beaufort Shipping, Sydney, is in charge of op erations at the Australian end.

Baron Vaea, the Tonga Minister for Labour, Commerce and Indus tries, is chairman of Pacific Naviga tion of Tonga.

“This new service will provide an effective and efficient contribution towards solving transport problems in the area”, Mr Lamborn said. “It will also strengthen close ties which Australia maintains with its Pacific Islands neighbours”.

Pacific Navigation of Tonga has taken over the Ha’amotaha from Pacific Navigation Co Ltd for a ser vice from Auckland to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. The new line will have Karlander as a competitor from Australia, and the Union Steam Ship

Co, and Warner Pacific Line on ser vices from New Zealand.

Tonga’s shipping services in the past were close to “going broke”.

The Pacific Navigation Co Ltd was in the red to the tune of about $1.3 million. In May, 1976, Mr Alwyn Ellem, principal of A. E. Ellem and Associates, Sydney business con sultancy, was called in to advise what should be done. Some time after having a look at the affairs of the company, Mr Ellem secured from P & O the services of Mr George Fulcher, 54, as acting general manager.

Under Mr Ellem, Mr Fulcher, who was with P & O for 33 years, carried out a restructuring of the staff of Pacific Navigation Co Ltd, and investigated cargo availability in the various ports served by the company. When Pacific Navigation of Tonga was formed, Mr Fulcher, because of his experience, was ap pointed general manager.

One of the bugbears of the Pacific Navigation Co Ltd was the Tauloto 11, which, because of lack of cargo, was operating at a loss. Under an Ellem-Fulcher initiative, she was re-chartered and now operates off the China coast with an occasional voyage to Australia. The income she now earns goes to paying off the re mainder of the debts of Pacific Navigation Co Ltd.

The Niuvakai, which operated a collier service from Newcastle to the Fiji Industries cement plant at Lami, near Suva, was sold to Dolphin Shipping, of Vila. She is now chartered to Fiji Industries and is still a collier. Both the Tauloto II and the Niuvakai are still crewed by Tongans.

The amount from the sale of the Niuvakai was used to help pay the $1.3 million debt. Most debts have been paid, and agreements have been made with the other creditors about payment.

Three inter-island ships, the Hifofua, Olovaha and Pakeina, have been transferred from Pacific Navigation Co Ltd to the Tonga Government. They are run on an agency basis by Pacific Navigation

of Tonga till the government makes other arrangements.

A somewhat skeptical PIM, hav ing watched and written about ship ping moves in Tonga for many years, questioned Mr Ellem about the chances of Pacific Navigation of Tonga operating profitably.

He confidently replied: “It will operate profitably. It was just a mat ter of doing our homework and bringing sound, qualified man agement to the operation, and the known shipping expertise of J.

Lauritzen. The new firm will be soundly based”.

Asked what he thought the effect of the new venture on the Forum Line would be, Mr Ellem replied: “That is something for the separate governments to decide. In my opi nion, if the Forum Line merely acted as a co-ordinating body to ra tionalise the many services to the Pacific Islands, it would achieve the best interests of those islands. I don’t believe the Forum Line can act as an operator for all the Pacific Islands nations”.

King Taufa’ahau Tupou, in his speech from the throne at the open ing of the 1977 session of the Legislative Assembly late in May, referred to the decision to leave in ternal shipping entirely to the government. A firm in West Germa ny had been approached on this sub ject. The same firm was also in terested in other shipping ventures in Tonga, and negotiations were continuing.

The king did not name the Ger man firm, but presumably he refer red to Hamburg-Sued and Colum bus. Mr Erwin Ludewig, managing director of Hamburg-Sued and president of Columbus Line, was in Tonga in February and again in May.

Mr George Fulcher, general manager of the new line.