THE MAUI POMARE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20966, 4 March 1930, Page 10

THE MAUI POMARE.

HER SUITABILITY QUESTIONED. DISCOMFORTS OF PASSENGERS. .. . f(Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, March 3. A correspondent at sea on the Maui Pomare on her way to Samoa on February 18 says:— It is officially stated that the present banana trade by the Maui Pomare could be doubled if a faster and larger vessel were provided. Thousands °of cases go to waste each vear in Nine alone owing to the limitations of transport. It may be safely stated that no one on board the vessel at the present time considers her suitable or adequate for the trade; and, as far as passenger traffic is concerned, most of the .accommodation is not suitable for the tropics. Until the day Niue was reached none of the portholes on the starboard side could be opened on account of the sea, and the fans simply churned up the poisoned air. Numbers of men carried their bedding to the smoko room on the upper deck.

“ The vessel doubtless is perfectly seaworthy, although it seems to be a question whether the hurricane hazards of those latitudes should be faced with engines of this character. But that is a question for experts. Exports however, need not he summoned to deal with flic question of the suitability of the vessel for passenger carrying. * On this voyage never more than half the passengeis were at any meal. The peculiar motion of the vessel in short seas was fatal, and many a ship that would carry more cargo would accommodate more passengers, all of whom except very bad sailors should have been able to* keep well in the kind of weather experienced on this trip.”