HOMEWARD FLIGHT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4591, 22 August 1923, Page 2

HOMEWARD FLIGHT.

EARLY RUSH FOR BERTHS. HEAVY BOOKING BY.ALL ROUTES. Steamship companies carrying pas-i sengers from New Zealand tc London are experiencing something. like a rush to book berths for as far ahead as next March and April sailings. The booking is largely provisional, but some direct liners to sail in February and March, 1924, are already full as to the first saloon, likewise the second ; while already the third-class booking is very heavy for London. By the liners sailing in March from Sylney via SUez, it is reported that very little accommodation is not “unpencilled.” and the majority of berths have been definitely taken. First and second and third-class berths in direct steamers sailing in April-May are fast filling up. The pressure on the transpacific Atlantic routes for March and April is not at present unduly heavy, but. it is likely to be in view of the eagerness to book by all sea routes, via Panama, Suez, and the Cape, for steamers sailing in the February co April period of 1924. The great Imperial Exhibition to be held in London may account for the activity of the passenger departmnets of liner companies usually booking passages for London so as to arrive there in the season, which begins in September. but this year inquiry for accommodation started two months earlier, and considerable booking took place in July for passages by direct steamers to London.