NO ANXIETY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 289, 5 December 1936, Page 7

NO ANXIETY.

PASSENGERS FOR ENGLAND. NEW ZEALAND BOOKINGS. Though the possibility of the postponement of the Coronation next May may have raised some anxiety in the minds of New Zealanders who have •planned visits to England next year, there has been 110 outward expression of their apprehension. The local shipping offices, whose ships have been heavily booked from the early part of the year onwards, stated this morning that 110 inquiries had been made to suggest cancelling of contemplated holidays abroad. The exit of holiday makers from New Zealand is normally a heavy one after Christmas, as it is the natural inclination to avoid the English winter. The Coronation, coinciding with the summer season in the United Kingdom, is an added incentive to travel abroad, but primarily it is not the reason for the heavy volume of passenger traffic which has been indicated for the latter part of our next summer. The Coronation is an incidental attraction, though obviously a strong one. The bulk of the people travelling overseas would have arranged the trip in any case, and it is only a small proportion that has been induced to go purely on account of the pageantry associated with the Coronation. The flow of passenger traffic commences in January, and there are heavy bookings from New Zealand until the following May. Some of the liners will take probably 500 passengers and be practically full ships. At the present time the bookings are, as customary, light. For instance, the Rangitata, which sails this month, will take only a score or two of civilian passengers. However, she will have about 80 ratings from H.M.S. Leith and a few petty officers and officers whose term on the New Zealand station has been completed.