Rawhiti Will Go To Great

Lakes

WHEN the LST Rawhiti, owned by the Roose Shipping Co., of Suva, berthed at Roselle Bay, Sydney, on August 20, with 170,000 :eet of sawn timber from Tauranga, tfZ, it was soon known that his would be her last appearance in he Pacific trade. An American >uyer has secured the handy 3,600ons landing-craft for the iron ore rade in the Great Lakes.

The Rawhiti and her skipper D. K. Matheson, formerly )f the NZ Government-chartered ;chooner, Tagua) are well known in he Islands. Since the Roose Co., vith headquarters at Mercer, NZ, mrchased the ship in Hawaii after he war, she has been seen in the Solomons, New Guinea, and Micro tesia, variously engaged as a live tock transport, a carrier of war urplus, or, latterly, on the trans rasman timber trade. She carried r gently needed general cargo from Luckland to Suva during the NZ waterfront tie-up.

Her Chief Engineer, Mr. Sugar, is well-known to the various port Justoms officers who, glancing own the lists of Declared Items, ave always found opposite his ame “live fishes” and, investigating urther, have discovered his cabin ) be a veritable floating aquarium, ith all kinds of tropical fishes ivimming leisurely among the fresh reen plants which decorate the big lass tanks in his cabin.

The Rawhiti arrived back in uckland late in September. She ads immediately for San Francisco, here she will go into dock. Her big )w doors will be permanently elded shut, and the big steel imp which poured tanks ashore i a Normandy beach-head and jain in the invasion of Italy, id which has since felt the tramp : cattle or the weight of big timber ucks driving inside with their ads, will no more go down.