NORTH AND SOUTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13724, 14 April 1908, Page 5

NORTH AND SOUTH.

THE SHIPPING SERVICE. MORE STEAMERS REQUIRED. Tee message from Dunedin, published in the Herald of yesterday, regarding the . inadequate steamer service between trie South and the North, was keenly discussed in local mercantile circles yesterday, the general opinion being that both the travelling public and the merchants had a very just cause for complaint. In conversation with a Herald representative a well-known Auckland merchant ,expressed the opinion that the present service, with two boats a week, between Auckland and Dunedin, via. the East Coast, : was very much behind the times. During the past few months, and more especially during the holiday season, he said, passengers had to be content! to take whatever accommodation was offered, the steamers being at times so overcrowed that travellers had to sleep on the floors in the saloon, smokaigroom, and steerage, and at timet; even the tables had to be brought into requisition. The steamers of both companies running on the service were in the same position for want of accommodation. "This certainty should not be permitted," said the merchant, " and it is to be hoped that before long the companies will come to a sense of their responsibilities to the travelling public. The matter can easily Ik got over by ' placing another steamer on the service, giving us three boats a week instead of two, as at present. I think that- very strong representations should be made by the Chamber of Commerce, as representing the interests of Auckland, to both the Union S.S. Company and the Huddart-Parker Company on the matter, so that by next season travellers will not have to put up with the past inconveniences. The trade of Auckland is such now as to demand the services of a third steamer weekly from Auckland to Dunedin, via way ports, and I trust that the matter will be strongly taken up, and the companies urged that it is in their best interests to extend the service."