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394 touch at Santos, Montevideo and Buenos Aires, The company will be known as the Philadelphia & South American Steam- ship Corporation and will operate the Philadelphia-South American Line. It will be financed almost entirely by New York capital, although the undertaking was planned by the Philadelphia cham- ber of commerce as a means of stimu- lating trade between that city and the southern continent. Monthly sailings have been arranged under the present schedule, but later, when the number of vessels will be in- creased, bi-monthly sailings will be un- dertaken. No passengers will be car- ried on any of the boats. Herman L. Wright, New York, is president of the corporation, and the vice president is John E. Liggett, New York, who is a director of several New York banks, the Hudson Steamship Co., the Eastern Steamship Corporation, the Clyde Steamship Co.,,and the Mallory line. The Pennsylvania railroad company figured extensively in the organization of the new line. The ships will dock at the railroad’s pier on the Delaware. Coffee, iron: and steel will probably con- stitute the chief part of the cargoes. The largest vessel will have a freight capacity of about 10,000 tons. * * * HE New York & Cuba Mail Steam- ship Co., more widely known as the Ward Line, has announced a new ser- vice to the west coast ports of Central America and Salina Cruz, Mexico. The first ship has sailed and ships will leave thereafter every 21 days. The vessels which will be used in the service will all be fast boats. The ships will carry freight only, according to the first an- nouncement, and will use the Panama canal. The Ward line operates services to Cuba, Mexico, Nassau, the west coast of Mexico and Central America at the present time. ee AA NEW service between New York and Brazilian ports will be inau- gurated by Norwegian ship owners shortly, according to an announcement made by the Kerr Steamship line, which will act as loading agent for the Wil- helmsen Steamship line. Wilhelm Wil- helmsen, Tonsberg, Norway, one of the largest individual owners and operators of Scandinavian tonnage, is the owner of the new line. He has been consider- ing for some time past the advisability of putting some of the steamers regu- larly in the South American trades, and believes that the time is favorable to such a_ venture. A. E. Clegg, vice president of the Kerr line, said that four steamers had already been named for the service, as follows: Tyr, sailing Oct. 25; Trr- THE MARINE REVIEW coLor, sailing Nov. 10; TRAFALGAR, sail- ing Nov. 25, and Times _ sailing in December. E. Johnston &. Cos, Ltd., Santos, and the Brazilian Warrant -Co., Ltd., Rio de Janeiro, closely iden- tified with the handling of steamers at Santos and Rio de Janeiro for many years, have been appointed agents for the steamers at the ports named. The vessels, besides making Rio de Janeiro and Santos regular ports of call, will also take cargo for Pernam- buco, Bahia, Florianapolis, Parague, Sao Francisco do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Pelotas and Port Alegre if re- quired. ee eee N a recent. issue the Canal Record publishes a list of the lines which have established regular or approximately regular services through the canal since the resumption. of traffic in April. The list includes four ser- vices from the Atlantic terminus toe South and Central America, one from the Atlantic terminus to Central and North America, three from the Atlantic coast of the United States to the Pa- cific coast of South America, four ser- vices from Europe to the Pacific coast of South America, four from Europe to the west coast of North America, nine from the Atlantic coast of the United States to Japan, Siberia, China, and the Philippine islands, six from the Atlantic coast of the United States to Australia and New Zealand, and two from Europe to Australia and New Zealand. * * * T is announced that the J. G. Rain- water Lumber Co., New Orleans, has purchased SAN Ramon and _ chartered five other vessels to establish a new line between New Orleans and Cristobal- Colon, to be known as the San Ramon Steamship line. The principal business of the new line will be the transporta- tion of lumber, for which the Rainwater company has received an order for 8- 500,000 feet from the Panama canal for use on the canal zone. It is said that SAN Ramon will make a trip every 22 days. —__. Lower Transpacific Rates George E. Anderson, American con- sul general at Hong Kong, China, states that there has been a sharp .decline in transpacific freight rates, and at present rates comparable with those obtained previous to the war are being quoted. General business slackness in the far east, due to some extent to the high value of silver exchange, which prevents the sale of Chinese products abroad to ad- vantage, has resulted in a marked de- crease in the movement of produce. Panama ties also are studying the organization of labor on the wharves as it is said November, 1916 As usual under such circumstances the subsidized Japanese lines have cy rates. Several large tramp steamers : have come into the market for cargoes and additional tonnage has been of fered from other sources. Ties sult has been a general collapse in rates eastward, which is likely to obtain until some of the tonnage now in service on the Pacific is transferred to other routes and until a change jn the silver situation permits a renewal of active export to the United States and Canada. Rates from Hong Kong and China ports to the United States and Canadian overland common points at the present time are open and com- petitive. The China coast freight situation is — completely demoralized. Rates on rice from Saigon to Hong Kong, usually counted as the basic rate for coastal freights, have fallen sharply. Char- tering is slow in consequence, and it is likely that it will be some time before there will be a readjustment more in accordance with freight conditions in other parts of the world. Regulation of Shipping The Australian naval authorities, who .have complete control of all . British shipping in Australian waters, are endeavoring to devise means which will lead to better organization of the tonnage at present availablé and divert it into channels which will be more profitable for the commonwealth as a whole. The proposal is that all ships coming to Australia should call at one port only. At present most of the vessels call at Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, discharge a little cargo at each port and load cargo similarly on the return trip. It is estimated that each ship would under the new order save on an average 14 days on each trip. The cost of running an average 5,000-tom steamer is estimated at approximately $2,000 a day. On this calculation every ship would save on an average $20,000 a trip, plus port dues, which would be avoided at three ports at which no call was made. Putting the number of vessels calling at Australia at 300 a year, this would give a clear. 4 saving of more than $7,500,000 a year, and the saving in time is calculated to give the equivalent of 50 additional vessels a year. It is not intended that any one port should be selected fot the carrying out of the idea, but that all ports might be used. The authori could that thousands of dollars woul saved if the wharf laborers work loyally and continuously.