TRANSPORT PROBLEM AT EXHIBITION

Otaki Mail, 19 June 1939, Page 4

TRANSPORT PROBLEM AT EXHIBITION

SYDNEY FERRY BOATS SYDNEY, June 10. If the difficulties of a Tasman crossing can be overcome, it is likely that several Sydney ferry boats will be leased bv New Zealand to transport crowds during the Centennial Exhibition at Wellington, beginning in November. An official of Sydney Ferries, Limited, said inquiries had been made, but nothing definite had been fixed. The Tasman crossing was the great difficult v. It seemed as though the 1200mile stretch of unreliable ocean might prevent the leasing of ferry boats. Only the steel vessels would be suitable. Navigation authorities, the official said, would demand adequate safeguards for the fairly large crews that would be required to man each vessel. Insurances would be heavy, and the vessels would have to be boarded up to withstand the battering of the seas. Sydney ferry boats, even of the wooden "type, "had steamed as far as Melbourne, but on such a voyage conditions were different from the Tasman, which could be as calm as a millpond, or as "dirty" as any stretch of ocean in the world, with little warning. On the run to Melbourne, the skippers, when the seas began to make had been able to run for the shelter of inlets, and and await a moderation.