WITHDRAWAL OF TOFUA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21131, 14 March 1932, Page 10

WITHDRAWAL OF TOFUA.

PACIFIC ISLANDS SERVICE. ONE TRIP REMAINING. Only one more trip in the Island trade xvill be made by the Union Company's steamer Tofua, which will arrive at Auckland from Tonga, Samoa and Fiji to-day. .When the vessel returns to Auckland in April she will be withdrawn and tne passenger service to the Islands will be abandoned after continuing for ever 50 years. The Tofua will be replaced by a cargo steamer, which will alsc- trade to Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, but it will not carry passengers. After tho withdrawal of the Tofua the only passenger service controlled by the Union Company between Auckland and the Islands will be by the Royal Mail liners Niagr.ra and Aorangi, which include Suva as a port of call in the Vancouver service.

The Union Company commenced trading to Fiji in 1880 with the 985-ton steamer Hero. As the Island ti'ade increased, the services were extended to Tongi and Famoa, and larger steamers had to bo employed. Vessels which succeeded the Hero included the steamers Penguin, Arawata, Taupo, Ovalau, Upolo, 7'aviuni, Talune, Hauroto, Mangapouri, Navua, Atua and Tofua.

For a considerable time the company had three passenger steamers engaged in the New Zealand-Western Pacific Island trade, and in addition the small steamer Kia Ora was utilised in the Fiji group to pick up cargo at the outlying islands and connect with the other steamers at Suva.

The Navua, Atua and Tofua were specially built for the service. W'len (hp "war broke out, the island services were curtailed, as the steamers were taken over as troopships. Throughout the war the Talune was employed in the service, and after the war the Talune lvas replaced by the Navua, which was later superseded by the Tofua.

The Tofua is the last of thd three steamers built for the service, the Atua and Navua having been sold to .Eastern buyers. She is a twin-screw vessel of 4345 tons and was built at Dumbarton, Scotland, by W. Denny and Bros, in 1908 After being continually employed in the Island trade for six years .'lie was commissioned as a troopship in Sep-.ember, 1915.

After the war she made a number of trips in the New Zealand-San Francisco service until the Maunganui and Tahiti were released from service as transport? Afterward the Tofua was laid up at Port Chalmers until 1923, when she was recomtnissioned in the Island service.