FIRST SIGHT OF DOMINION

Taranaki Daily News, 30 April 1934, Page 6

FIRST SIGHT OF DOMINION

MOUNT EGMONT 100 MILES AWAY. FORT MELBOURNE’S ARRIVAL. Strictly to schedule, and looking spic and span despite a long sea voyage, the C. and D. steamer Port Melbourne arrived in ballast at New Plymouth yesterday direct from Newcastle-on-Tyne. The trip took 42 days from port to port, the ship leaving Tyne on March 17. The voyage was non-stop, land being sighted only three times. The first sight of New Zealand was Mount Egmont, sighted with perfect clarity at 4 p.m. on Saturday, when the ship was more than 100 miles from land. Apart from the Bay of Biscay, where the weather was traditionally bad, moderately good weather was experienced all the way. The officers expected the worst in the Tasman Sea, for the weather reports predicted bad conditions. But the weather was perfect. The Cape of Good Hope was, with Eddystone Light, Tasmania, the only land sighted. The ship had 7400 tons of coal, sufficient for the round trip from England to New Zealand and back, when it left Newcastle. At New Plymouth 13,000 freight carcases of meat, 8000 boxes of butter and 3600 crates of cheese will be loaded, and the ship will sail later for Wanganui, Lyttelton, Napier, Gisborne and Wellington, sailing for London from Wellington on May 23.