STEAMER RUN TO CEASE.

TAURANGA PASSENGER TjUDE.

WITHDRAWAL OF NGAPUHI*

CARGO SERVICE SUBSTITUTED.

RAIL AND MOTOR COMPETITION.

The steamer passenger service between Auckland and Taaranga, maintained fcv the Northern Steamship Company fj r over 40 years, :s to be discontinued next week. On her last trip in the service the Ngapuhi will leave for Taaranga on Monday evening, and vhen she returns to Auckland next Wednesday moraine the service vrill c^ase. The Ngapuhi -will be replaced bv the auxiliary vessel Eonaki, which wii! a cargo service to Tauranga, Icavin-* Auckland twice weekly, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. On her first, trip the Uonaki wiii fce despatched for Taurac-a at four o'clock next Wednesday afternoon. The company's decision to. abandon the service is due to the combined rail and motor-car competition. The prospects for the winter season as far as sea travel is concerned are not sufficiently promising to warrant the continuation of a passenger service. Tna Ngapuhi will be laid up until she is needed to relieve the Raravra or the Clansman when either of those vessels is withdrawn for periodical overhaul. The Ronaki is a wooden vessel of 253 tons gross and was purchased last month from the Portland Cement Ompanv. She is fitted with a 270 h.p. engine.

The Tauranga run is the second passenger service to be abandoned by the Northern Company in two and a-fcalf years. In September, 1926, the Auck-land-Onerahi passenger service, which had been maintained for over 50 years, ceased. The Xgapuhi was the las» steamer in that service, which was stopped when she returned to Auckland on September 24, 1926. The completion of the railway between Auckland and Whangarei was the cause of the Onerahi service being abandoned, and since then the company's steamer Claymore has maintained 3 passenger service between Auckland and Whangarei Town Wharf.