STEAMER EXPRESS BERTHS

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24149, 7 January 1944, Page 6

STEAMER EXPRESS BERTHS

HEAVY DEMAND FOR PASSAGES MANY NORTH ISLAND VISITORS’ RETURN DELAYED "The Press” Special Service DUNEDIN, January 6. Because of the heavy demand for passages on the steamer express service, many North Island visitors to Dunedin who did hot book reservetions for the return journey now find themselves faced with an unfortunate position. The district manager of Government Tourist Department (Mr R. G. Sincock) said to-day that many cases had been brought under his notice of visitors who were required to resume work on January 5 or 6, but who, through their failure to secure return steamer passages before they left home, would be unable to reach their homes before January 16 or 18. Instances had also occurred, he said, of persons who had been directed by manpower officers to positions in the north under conditions which required them to report by January 5 or 6 and for whom it had been found impossible to obtain passages by the steamer express. “Dunedin has had more visitors from the north over the holidays than at any time since the year of the exhibition,” Mr Sincock said: “Many of them wished to visit Queenstown but with one or two exceptions it had not been possible to find accommodation for them before January 15 or 20 at the earliest. Accommodation would be available at Wanaka and Stewart Island from January 10 onwards, but at all South Island resorts the peak of the holiday season had been maintained for a longer period than for many years past.”