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Union Company To Alter Timetable

From Our Own Correspondent

Suva, May 21.

A CHANGE in the timetable of the Canadian Australasian vessels, which is of considerable importance to Fiji, is announced by the Union Company conse quent upon the forthcoming suspension of the Sydney-N.Z.-Tahiti-’Frisco service.

After the departure of the Aorangi from Sydney on December 3, the next sailing will be the Niagara on January 21, fol lowed by the Aorangi on February 18, and thereafter every 28 days. After the sail ing of the Aorangi from Vancouver on December 30, sailings from that port will be similarly retarded.

This means that the northbound C. and A. boats will call at Suva 17 days after the Matson liners and the southbound boats 11 days later than American boats.

This will have the effect of giving the Colony a much more efficient mail service, as at present, the Matson boats call four days after the Union vessels.

Probably the direction in which most benefit will be felt will be in connection with the tourist traffic, as it will relieve the accommodation problem. At present, with tourists arriving on Fridays by the Canadian liners for a week’s stay in Suva, and then more sightseers arriving the fol lowing Tuesday by the Matson boats, the problem of accommodating the visitors has become most serious. When the new timetable comes into operation it will mean that the Union Co. trippers will have left the town before the visitors by the Matson boats arrive.

Both the Suva Chamber of Commerce and the Government have approached the two shipping companies at various times with requests for a change, but the Mat son Company has been unable to make any alteration, being compelled to work in with the much more important Hono lulu traffic. Hitherto the Canadian company has been bound by its mail con tracts and the making of connections with the Wellington-San Francisco service.