EMPIRE BENEFITS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 155, 23 February 1932, Page 7

EMPIRE BENEFITS

PLEASURE-SEEKERS GO TO JAMAICA INSTEAD OF RIVIERA. EFFECT OF EXCHANGE RATE. ' One result of Britain's going off the 'gold standard, and the consequent adverse exchange rate with other countries, has been that business which usually. went outside the Empire is now coming back to British possessions. Ships, for instance, which formerly refuelled at the Panama Zone j while en route from New Zealand to England, now fuel at Kingston, Jamaica, while others have found it more economical to make the longer trip Homeward round Cape Horn and outward via the Cape of Good Hope rather than pay the Canal dues. Another result has been that British society people who formerly. spent the winter at the Riviera and other Gontinental pleasure resorts are now either staying at home or going elsewhere. One place that is taking much of the hoiiday business that once went to foreign resorts is Kingston, Jamaica, where the tourist can still get 20s for the English pound. Possessing an equable climate much after the Riviera type, and numerous other attractions, Kingston is drawing increasing patronage from those who are able and willing to escape the rigours of the British winter. The New Zealand Shipping Company's motor liner Rangitiki, for example, which arrived recently from Southampton, disembarked 26 of her first-class passengers, many of them titled people, at Kingston, and other ships are also carrying their quota. The Rangitihi, which left Southampton on January 15, experienced rough weather during the first four or five days on the Atlantic, and this caused her to slacken speed, with the result that she was a day late in reaching the West Indian port. Fine weather on the Pacific, however, enabled the lost time to be made up, and she arrived here on schedule. The Rangitiki brought about 160 passengers, and her mail comprised 800 bags and 400 parcel receptacles. After discharging about 3000 tons of her cargo at Wellington she is to leave for Auckland to continue discharge.