MATAI WITHDRAWN FROM SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26958, 18 December 1948, Page 6

MATAI WITHDRAWN FROM SERVICE

The Government steamer Matai has been withdrawn from the lighthouse service and negotiations concerning her future disposition are in progress. This has been announced by the Minister of Marine, Mr Hackett, in Wellington. The Matai which is now at the Devonport Naval Base, has been offered for sale by tender. The Minister said that when the Matai was built for Government requirements many years ago most of the lighthouse stations depended entirely on sea transport for mails and stores, which were delivered at periods of from four to six months. Land access had since been provided to almost all the stations on the mainland, and mails and stores could now be delivered weekly or fortnightly, and in

one case monthly. The Matai had performed splendid work in cablelaying, but small coastal vessels could be used for any emergency work in the future. With 18 years’ service ranging from cable-laying and servicing lighthouses to ocean towing and war trooping, the 1050-ton steamer Matai has had a varied career. Before the war she was chiefly engaged in the work for which she was built making regular calls at every lighthouse on the New Zealand coast. Several govern Ors-general have been among her passengers on coastal' voyages. The Matai was commissioned by the Navy as a minesweeper in April 1941, and she was later used in the Pacific for escort and'.anti-submarine duties. 1.

In 1945 she undertook cable-laying • 1 work in the Cook Strait and Foveaux Strait, and she was then chartered by the Royal New Zealand Air Force for Pacific trooping. In April, 1946, the steamer was handed back to the Marine Department, but her return to lighthouse servicing was delayed for 18 months by the demands of Tasman tows, supply carrying and other Government wbrk. After a few months as a lighthouse tender, the Matai was assigned the difficult task of repairing two breaks in the Pacific cable network in Inarch and April of this year. She then visited most of the coastal lights before making a cargo trip to the New Hebrides. Since her return she has been under refit at the Devonport naval base.