NEW ZEALAND PASSENGERS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 117, 19 May 1914, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND PASSENGERS

TO LAND AT SOUTHAMPTON. A WELCOME DEPARTURE. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 9th April. Arrangements have been made for the Home-coming passengers on the liners of 'he New Zealand Shipping Company and the Shaw, Savill, ancl Albion Company to disembark at Southampton. This means that Plymouth has been definitely abandoned as a port of call, both inwards and outwards. The wonder is that this step has not been 'taken before. At present' passengers leave the ship either at Plymouth or at the docks, and it is next tc impossible to obtain any real idea of the time the train reaches London. _ The docks generally are notorious for inconveniences, as most New Zealanders know to their sorrow. Southampton is much better situated in this respect. A .tender will meet the liner off the Isle of Wight and take the passengers, mails, and baggage straight to the quay. The baggage will be unloaded with the utmost despatch, and placed in the Customhouse under the initial letter of the surname, so that passengers claim their goods and get them through the Customs practically without trouble. The train waiting in-, readiness will all at Waterloo Station. There is no doubt that Southampton will be found infinitely more convenient for New Zealanders than either Plymouth or Tilbury. The saving in time for the passengers coming Home will be half a day, added to which the liner on' her trip up Channel can be got ready for unloading the cargo 'in dock. On the outward journey passengers will embark at the clocks in London, and the liner will proceed straight away on her voyage down Channel without calling at any other English -port. This will save a day on th« present arrangements. The first New Zealand Shipping Company's boat to comply with this departure will be the Rotorua, when she leaves New Zealand on 2nd July, and will be due here on 13th August, The first Shaw, Savill, and Albion boat will be the lonic, due here on 26th August. Sir William Portal, Deputy Chairman of the London and South-Western Railway, says that tho Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company intend to run a number of frozen meat ships from New Zealand to Southampton, and that in this connection < the Tokomaru will be the first to arrive, probably in the course of next month. Such a bervice would, of course, bo quite independent of the mail service from the Dominion, and would seem to point to some measure of competition between Southampton and London for frozen meat trade.