23 Nurses On Tamaroa

Grey River Argus, 11 October 1948, Page 8

23 Nurses On Tamaroa

The Shaw Savill and Albion Co.'s 12,000-ton passenger ship Tamaroa arrived at Wellington with 374 passengers, including 97 Governmentassisted settlers and 93 sponsored settlers. Most of the assisted passengers were: 23 nurses, destined for hospitals throughout the Dominion. Shorthand-typists formed the second largest group, six of the total of 14 being selected for the Post and Telegraph Department. That department will also receive 12' tradesmen. Eight boilermakers, three floormoulders, three coalminers and miscellaneous workers made up the total of 97 Government-assisted immigrants in the ship. Among the sponsored passengers were a number of skilled workers who will join the new Dunlop rubber factory in the Hutt Valley. Three Royal Marines were conspicuous on the ship in their smart uniforms. They will join H.M.N.Z.S. Bellona.

Passengers rated the trip to New Zealand, through the Panama Canal as "perfect” except for the last week when the ship ran into bleak weather. The Tamaroa completed her first voyage to New Zealand as a refitted ship. Previously she accommodated 132 cabin-class passengers, but to meet the urgent demands of New Zealanders wishing to return and settlers seeking a new home, the Shaw Saville Company reconverted the ship to carry 370 tourist-class travellers. All the ship’s accommodation has been decorated, refurnished and reequipped. The Tamaroa is the fourth S.S.&A. Line vessel to return reconverted, to the New Zealand run since the war and the sixth to be reconverted from war service by the company. The flagship of the fleet, the Dominion Monarch, is still being reconverted, and, following her delivery to the company, all Shaw Savill ships that survived the war will be back in service.