STEAMER DELAYS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 156, 29 March 1926, Page 7

STEAMER DELAYS

is sometimes asked why more’ Australians do not visit New Zealand, and some explanation might be found in the irregularity of steamer sailings. Last week, for instance, there was no direct boat to Sydney. The Manuka, for some time, was appointed to leave at three o’clock this (Monday) afternoon for Melbourne. On Thursday last, for no apparent reason, it was announced that she would not leave till 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Then on Saturday a further announcement was made that the vessel would no* get away till noon on Wednesday, just a week after she reached the Bluff from Melbourne. There has been no intimation of any trouble with firemen or seamen. Visitors and others who made careful arrangements based on advertised sailing times are put to serious inconvenience and monetary losses by these seemingly capricious delays. The belated announcements of altered sailing time preclude their catching another vessel which might be leaving Auckland in the meantime. Can the . company give any reasonable explanation as to why it should take nearly a week for the 'Manuka to come from the Bluff to Wellington? Even if amicable stokehold and crew relations are preserved, can reliance be placed on the announcement that the steamer will get away on Wednesday? Episodes such as this make many people very reluctant to incur the risks and unforseen jxpense of travelling to the Dominion from Australia.—l am, etc., TRAVELLER. March 25, 1926.