of South Pacific [?]ervice

Columbus Line in bi[?]extension of South Pacific [?]ervice

The Columbus Line has an nounced that its service be tween Europe and the South Pacific has been extended to

include Fiji, Samoa. Tonga.

Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.

The Hamburg-Sued group, parent company of Columbus Line, started the service from Europe to the Pacific in 1968.

In recent years the service has concentrated mainly on cargo carried to the French ter ritories of Tahiti and New Caledonia.

In its earlv stages the new service will he ;un ; • , ncer with two modern sei riven tional cargo-liner Santa Teresa and Santa hies.

These ships will provide the service at eight-weekly inter vals.

On the southbound leg from Europe the ships will use the Panama Canal and the return voyage will be made via the Suez Canal.

President of Columbus Line, Erwin Ludewig, said the extended service was expected to make a significant contri

bution to regional develop

ment. ‘Hamburg-Sued and Colum bus Line have had a long and active association with the South Pacific,’ he said. ‘We share the view of re

gional governments and pri

vate business that the region’s growth potential will never be realised without reliable access to efficient transport services.

“While our estimates of the growth potential in the short term are conservative, we will continue to pay close attention to requests of shippers for vari ations in existing services.’

The extended services began

A Columbus Line container vessel heads out to sea from her German home port.

Erwin Ludewig

I on March 20 when the Santa * Teresa sailed from Rotter- I dam.

Other European ports to be [ served are Hamburg. Dunkirk.

I and Le Havre. Operation of the service will be directed from

Hamburg by Columbus Line

Reederei GMBH.

New Forum

services

Improved services to the Pa cific Islands were announced in March by the Pacific Forum Line.

The new schedules took effect with the arrival of the Strider class container ship Forum New Zealand in Auckland at the end of that month.

This ship completes a mod ern fleet for the line.

The Forum New Zealand will operate a 14-day service be tween Auckland, Fiji, the Samoas and Tonga.

The other new ships in the fleet, the Forum Samoa and Fua Kavenga , will operate a 28-day scheduled service be

tween Lyttelton, Napier, Mt

Maunganui (one ship only)

and Auckland to Fiji, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.

The line said the reschedul

ing reflected particular regard

to the potential of the Papua New Guinea and Fiji markets for New Zealand exporters and expected growth of exports from the islands to New Zealand.

Soviet ship ban

hurts Fiji

Fiji’s tourist industry would be hit hard by the cancellation of scheduled visits by Russian cruise ships, according to tour ist industry sources.

Henry Gibson, the Suva shipping manager of Burns Philp (SS) Co Ltd, confirmed that all visits by Russian cruise ships had been cancelled.

Burns Philp are the agents handling Russian cruise liners.

Mr Gibson said the Aus-

Ships

tralian Government's decision to ban Russian vessels from entering Australia had resulted in the cancellations.

The Charter Travel Com pany of Australia operates the Russian cruise vessels Ivan Franko, Taras Shevchenko and MV Turkmenia. The ships are on charter from the Far East Shipping Co which is based at Vladivostok, he said.

He added that because of their Russian ownership the vessels were included in the ban. The crews of the vessels are mostly Russians.

The president of the Fiji Duty-Free Dealers Associ ation. Mohan Musadilal, said the duty-free dealers would suffer from the cancellation. ‘We duty-free dealers here in Suva depend to a large extent on tourists arriving by sea for business,' Mr Musadilal said. ‘The last three months have been the worst we have experi enced in trading, and now we will lose further business.’

The Russian ships usually

brought in 600 to 700 passen gers at every call.

Mr Musadilal said that the duty-free dealers would lose about $lOOOOO to $125 000 from every Rusian cruise ship that was cancelled.

Mr Shantilal Lallubhai, a Suva duty-free dealer, said his shop would lose more than $lOOO from every Russian cruise ship that did not call.

The general manager of the Fiji Visitors Bureau, Mr Malakai Gucake said, ‘The tourist industry will be affected

drastically.’

As reported earlier (PIM Apr p 9), the Australian Government has announced a three-year forward civil aid commitment of $l2O million to South Pacific island countries, an increase of more than 40% on the previous commitment of $B4 million. The increase was seen in part as compensation for losses of revenue such as those complained of in Fiji as a result of Australian policy on

Afghanistan.