PROJECTED MOVEMENTS OF THE UNION BOATS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3538, 10 November 1882, Page 4

PROJECTED MOVEMENTS OF THE UNION BOATS.

(by telegraph.) Dunedin, November 10,

The three weeks that will be occupied in repairing fche damage to the Rotomahana, following immediately upon her three weeks' lay-up for overhaul, have to a certain extent interfered with the plans that had been arranged by the Union Company for carrying out fche work of the summer season. The Rotorua, which was in port afc the time of the Rotomahana's accident, wa? at once despatched to Melbourne direct, and to prevent any chance of the trade at thafc port being incommoded the Decima wa3 re-chartered, and is now loading there in place of the Rotomahana. It has also been decided to place the Albion in communication again until the arrival of the FJauroto and Tarawera, the former of which should be here about Christmas, and the latter some time during January. The Rotomahana, after her repairs are completed, will probably run special fortnightly trips botweon Port Chalmers and Melbourne, connecting Port Chalmers with the Rotorua, which will be despatched at regular fortnightly intervals to Auckland and back via the East Coast ports. These two vessels will thus form a supplementary service to the ordinary weekly service from Melbourne up tho East Coast, and by supplying ample provision for the increase of traffic usually looked for during the summer months will relieve the ordinary boats of any great strain iipon their accommodation. The repairs to fche Penguin are being rapidly pushed on, and the new boilers being already shipped she is expected to be ready to resume her place in the coastal service early in December. The arrival of the Tarawera will enable the company to carry out a project they have hitherto been unable to execute for want of plant, viz., an excursion to the West Coast Sounds on a large and popular scale. This fine new steamer will be laid on for a nine or ten days' trip to Milford and other of these wonderful sounds afc reduced rates, offering to the general public of all parts of the colony an opportunity of visiting the coast which they have not hitherto enjoyed. As soon as the Tarawera is available for the ordinary timetable running, the company will be in a position to supplement the present fortnightly service to Sydney via Auckland, should the trade in that direction offer sufficient encouragement to warrant fche experiment being tried. The Waitara, sister ship to the Tarawera, is expected to reach the colony about the end of March next, and will be followed by the Takapuna in August or September. The latter is an express boat 200 feet in length, 32 feet in breadth, and of great power specially designed to form a fast passenger service between Lyttelton and the Manukau. Her construction has been entrusted to the hands of the well-known Barrow Shipbuilding Company.