COASTAL STEAMER SERVICE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11249, 14 April 1908, Page 5

COASTAL STEAMER SERVICE.

AGITATION FOR INCREASE OF BOATS. (Special to Herald.) DUNEDIN, this day. Large quantities of grain are in Dunedin awaiting shipment to northern ports, and the shipping companies are hard put to it to supply tlie demands for cargo space. {Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Tlie message from Dunedin regarding the inadequate steamer service between the South and the North was keenly dis. cussed in local shipping circles to-day, the. general opinion being that both the travelling public and the merchants had a very just excuse 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 overcrowded that travellers bad to sleep on the floors in the saloon, smoking room; and steerage, and at times even the tables had to be brought 1 into requisition. The steamers of both . companies running in the service were in the same position for want of accommodation.

"This certainly should not be permitted," said the merchant, "and it is to be hoped that before, long the companies will come to a sense of! tlieir responsibilities to the, travelling public. The matter can easily be . got .pyer by placing another steamer in . the "service, giving us three boats a week instead of two as at present.; I think that very strong representations should be made to the Chambers of Commerce, as representing the interests of both the Union Steam Ship Company'urid^ the Huddart,- Parker Company, on the matter, sb-that-next season.travellers will not have' to put vup with the same inconveniences. The trade of Auckland is such now as to demand the services Yof oa third, steamer weekly from Auckland to Dunedin, . via way. ports, and I trust thdt >lhe. matter . will be strongly taken Vup, and the companies urged that it is -to' their best , interests to extend the service."