New Motorship.

For Solomons Run.

THE new motorship Malaita, which is being built in Scotland for Burns, Philp and Co., Ltd., will enter the Burns, Philp Island service at the end of the year, replacing the steamer Mataram, which is to be laid up, or sold (says the “Sydney Morning Herald”).

The Malaita was launched at the end of August, at the yards of Barclay Curie and Co., Ltd., Glasgow. The vessel is of 3,500 tons gross register, and is 312 feet long, with a beam of 47 feet, and a depth of 23 feet 6 inches.

She will have a cargo capacity of 160,000 cubic feet. An interesting feature of the motorship will be the engines, which are to be of the new two-cycle type, for which a very high efficiency is claimed. They are being built by Nessrs. J. G. Kinkead and Co., Ltd., Greenock, and will give the Malaita a speed of from 14 to 15 knots.

It is expected that the vessel will be completed towards the end of October, and if her performance proves satisfac tory an order will probably be placed by Burns, Philp and Co., Ltd., for a larger vessel of similar type, to replace the motorship Malabar, which was wrecked at Long Bay in 1931.

The Mataram, a vessel of 3,331 tons, is very well known in the island trade.

She was built in 1909.