MANY STRANDED

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 July 1946, Page 7

MANY STRANDED

TRANS-TASMAN TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES LACK OF SHIPPING (From C. H. Mentiplny. Special Press Association Correspondent.) (Rec. 2.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, July 30. “Things must be bad all right but, of course, this does not refer to me” is apparently the reaction of a large number of New Zealanders, on reading of the difficulties'of trans-Tasman travel.

Many people are disregarding the warnings and coming to Australia on what they imagine will be short holiday trips, only to find that their chances of getting back within a fewmonths are nebulous. Before they leave New Zealand all passengers sign an undertaking that they are prepared to stay in Australia for at least six months. If they did not do this, they would not be issued with an exit permit; but too many people regard the signature merely as a formality in order to get the required authority. Plain arithmetic should convince intending passengers that the situation is as serious as reported. At present there are 1400 people booked with the Union Steam Ship Company alone for passages to New Zealand, exclusive of nearly 300 who are guaranteed passages within a few days. In the past three months there has been no notable clearance of travellers to New Zealand, simply because there have been no ships. During that time, however, seven, vessels have brought a total of 1478 passengers to Australia, a large proportion of whom are New Zealanders on shoit—term trips.

The other side of the ledger is blank, except for two entries. The Manunda sails to-day from Sydney for Wellington with 194 pasengers and next Sunday the Dutch steamer Tasman is to leave Brisbane for Auckland with 86 more. It is plain that it will be many months before the existing passenger lists are cleared.