"Viti" Arrives

Useful Motor-Ship For Fiji Governor

THE new patrol motor-vessel “Viti”, which has just been built in Hong Kong to the order of the Fiji Gov ernment, arrived in Suva on August 14. after a voyage from Hong Kong of 24 days, including a call at Tulagi (Solomon Islands).

The vessel is 168 feet long, 3U feet in beam, and her displacement is 1,000 tons.

She has been constructed so as to per form a multiplicity of duties—Governor’s yacht, lighthouse inspection, hospital ship, hydrographic survey ship, and armed mine-sweeper. The accommodation consists of a suite for the Governor, 8 staterooms for the Governor’s staff or passengers, six rooms for European officers, and accommodation for 30 Fijian petty officers and members of the crew She can carry 100 tons of cargo.

She is a handsome little ship. Her use fulness was demonstrated within a few days, when she departed from Suva carrying the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific (Sir Harry Luke) on an urgent mission to New Caledonia.

The “Viti” was launched in Hong Kong on November 21. 1939, but was not ready for her trials until July. After she was launched, it was decided to alter her equipment in certain ways, as a result of war conditions.

“Viti”, of course, is “Fiji”, in the native form.

Mr. Noel Stock, formerly of Tulaen and Dew au Plantations, Buka, New Guinea, has enlisted in the A.I.F.