WITHDRAWAL FROM SERVICE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 14828, 16 November 1948, Page 3

WITHDRAWAL FROM SERVICE

NEW SCHEDULE FOR KAPITI Trade With Great Barrier

Link With Tauranga To Be Maintained

(P.A.) Auckland, Nov. 15. With the withdrawal of the motor-vessel Kapiti from the Great Barrier Island service next month, the Northern Steamship Company will sever its connection with the coastal passenger trade. The company, at one time the owner of the largest passenger fleet in the Dominion, will concentrate on its freight routes and on its associated road service to the Hauraki Plains area. The Auckland-Great Barrier passenger trade will be maintained from December 6 by the Strongman Shipping Company's new motorvessel Coromel. The change has been announced by the Minister of Marine, Mr Racket, v/ho said the Northern Company had not recouped expenses, but that the new service would receive the same subsidy, £IOOO a year, until March 31, when costs would be investigated. Purchased by the Northern Company in 1938 from the 1 Coastal Shipping Company, Ltd., of Wellington, ihQ Kapiti has been in the Auckland-Great Barrier-Tau-ranga service for some years. She will make her last call at the island on December 2 on a voyage from Tauranga to Auckland. The Kapiti, which is fitted lor. the transport. of insulated produce, will continue to run to and frcm Tauranga.

The gradual decline in the Northern Company's passenger fleet during the past 30 years has coincided with the development of better rail and road communications. Important passenger services cancelled included the Auckland-Tau-ranga run in 1926, the On'ehungaNew Plymouth in 1930, AucklandRussell in 1931, Auckland-Whan-garei and Auckland-Thames runs in 1938, and the Waiheke and Coromandel trades early in the war. Although the company's passenger services are nearing the end, the transport of cargo still occupies a large number of ships and shallowdraught motor-vessels take the Northern Company's flag to many parts of the province and to the South Island.