DEPARTURE OF THE S.S. IONIC.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 128, 26 November 1907, Page 3

DEPARTURE OF THE S.S. IONIC.

A RECORD NUMBER OF PASSENGERS. {From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 18th October. ' To-day^ the Shaw-Savill and Albion Company's steamer, lonic, has started from London on her ouhvaid vovago via the usual ports, but • a somewhat unusual featuie of this, trip now embarked upon consists in the record number of passengers which the steamer is carrying. She has started with' no fewer than 779 passengers da board, apart entirely from her officers and crow. A good number are, T learn, travelling at the Teduced rates given by arrangement with the New Zealand Government to bona fide settlers with capital: But the number of this class of passengers is stated to be little more than normal, the rush being . on the part of New Zealanders \vho are returning to their homos after a holiday tour in Europe. So great. is tho demand for accommodation this autumn by all linec that both the P. and 0. Company and tho Orient Company " have, for sorno considerable time, had full passenger lists, and they have been unablo to accept numbers- of would-be passengers ' for Australia and New Zealand In the first and second saloons th<? lonic carries respectively 50 and 70 pas&engers, of whom 37 have booked to Wellington, 21 to Lyttelton, 22 to Auckland, 5 to Port Chalmers,? to Gisborne, 1 to Nelson, 3 to New Plymouth, i to -Timaru, 4 to the Bluff, and 10 to Napier; one has booked -only to Hobart and aeven are bound for Sydney. In the third class there aro now fewer than 569 passengers, bound for the following ports: — Auckland, 161; Wellington, 149; Lyfcteltor.,'lo6; Napier, 36: New Plymouth, 26; Bluft, 1$; Port Chalmers, 34; and the othcis foi Nel&on, Picton, Greymouth, Tinuru. etc.