Rarotonga-Tahiti Line.
p. 11 · Read in the full issue
Union Co. May Abandon Service.
From Our Own Correspondent.
PAPEETE, January 26.
RUMOURS are again afloat in Tahiti that the Union Steam Ship Com pany intends to abandon the San Francisco-Tahiti-Wellington service at the end of March, when the Australian and New Zealand mail subsidy expires.
Although these rumours are sup ported by an article in the local paper, “Le Reveil”, and by private informa tion from San Francisco and Sydney, we have not heard anything definite from the company’s local agency.
While the stoppage of the “Makura” and “Maunganui”, which provide a regular 28 day service both ways be tween Sydney and San Francisco for mails and passengers, will be a serious blow to Tahiti interests, it will come
as no great surprise in commercial circles. The least observant person among the crowd which habitually gathers on the Papeete wharf to watch the arrival of the mail steamers, can not have failed to remark the decrease in the number of through passengers travelling by this route. Since the in auguration of the Messageries Mari times service, a large proportion of the copra output has been sent direct to Prance, and the fact that the mail steamers will not carry such lines as timber and petrol has encouraged the sending of casual vessels from the Pacific Coast. These now take a large share of the copra going to America.
It is obvious that the Union Co. has maintained this service only at a loss for a long while.