RUSH ON MATUA

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 135, 5 December 1938, Page 11

RUSH ON MATUA

PASSENGERS FROM SUVA

(Special to the "Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Day. Difficulties confronting a number of New Zealanders, Australians, and Island residents in obtaining berths on ships travelling between Fiji and Auckland were related by several passengers who arrived by the Matua yesterday. They said that a rush for passages by the ship had occurred long before it arrived and that this would continue to be the case for the rest of the summer.

No fewer than 15 of the 49 passengers on board the Matua embarked at Suva, and it was stated that, although the ship had taken as many as possible at this port, there were still dozens more waiting to leave the island. If large commercial concerns operating at Fiji followed the usual practice of beginning with their holiday rosters this month, the position would become even worse.

"It is the usual story," said one of the passengers. "While in the winter it is easy enough to obtain passages away from Fiji, in the summer, when, in addition to visitors, there are a large number of residents who want to go to cooler climates for their holidays, there are not enough ships for the traffic on hand."

Fiji, he said, could not expect the companies in the transpacific and Island trades to refuse berths to prospective passengers at the New Zealand and Canadian or United States terminals merely because there was a possibility of people wanting berths at Suva. Intending passengers iri Fiji just had to join a waiting-list 'and take their chances.

"Unfortunately, however," said this passenger, "the people who may be stranded at Suva are not the only ones who are suffering. Any chances of the colony developing a profitable tourist trade from New Zealand and Australia are being entirely spoilt, and it is felt at Suva that this trade would develop very rapidly if facilities were available."