IMPROVED SAN FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 185, 6 August 1900, Page 4

IMPROVED SAN FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE.

New Zealand for many years has benefited very largely from the San Francisco mail service. As regards the punctual and expeditious carriage of European mails, the line has given a minimum cause for grumbling. As a tourist route the. quality of the service has hardly advanced with the times. Globe-trotters coming off the 8000-ton Orient and P. & O. liners, or the mammoth North German Lloyd steamers, have frequently been known to abandon their intention of an allround trip on seeing the comparative smallness of the steamers of the American line. It seems now that all this is to be- done away with, and that ere the close of the year a fleet of three new 6000-ton steamers will take up the running. The change will not only give us slightly quicker transit for our mails, but make the line as a passenger route not secondary in modern conveniences to the P. & 0., Orient, North German Lloyd or Messagerie Maritimes. Steamers of 6000 tons, with a guaranteed speed of 17 knots, and fitted in the most modern fashion, will be able to • successfully compete with any of these lines. Descriptions of the Sonoma, Sierra and Ventura, which are rapidly approaching completion in Messrs. Cramps' yards, Philadelphia, have been already given, but some slight reference to the more prominent points ol these three sister ships may not be out of place. Their length is 400 feet, tonnage, 6000 (gross), and horse power 7500. The passenger accommodation is restricted to the main and upper decks, and the full complement is 260—saloon 80, second class 80 and steerage 100. The electrical plant will not only supply 600 lights of 600 candle power, but drive electric fans in the passengers' quarters, a method of cooling the air that in the tropics will be greatly appreciated. The large dining-saloon on the main deck, social hall, bridal suites, and smoking-room on the shade deck, are all said to be luxuriously fitted. The builders are the same firm who launched tie Mariposa and Alameda, and if they, in this instance, turn out equally excellent work .there, will be nothing to cavil at. The new service will b« every three weeks, instead of monthly as at present, and it is interesting to note that in the time-table issued Auckland is the port of call in New Zealand. The firpt vesel inward, the Sonoma, arrives here on November 19,. and on the return to America she passes through Auckland on December 8. That the Benefits attaching to the new service will be considerable, we have no hesitation in affirming. Its inauguration will be looked forward to with interest.