Ship from

Could It Be?

Plenty of Berths in Ship from Suva to NZ

GRIM memories of sea travel be-J tween the Islands and New Zea-I land in the war-time and post-1 war years were revived for many people in Fiji when, in June, the Union Steam Ship Co. advertised several times at Suva that “plenty of berths” were available in a ship bound from Suva to Lyttelton and Wellington. It may, of course, have! been merely a flash in the pan.

“Plenty of berths” . . . Shades of the Matua’s “Jungle” and “Imperial Suite”!

For years, women passengers ingly, or otherwise, endured the rigours of the Jungle—jam-packed accommodation in what had been the charming pre-war music room, and men retired to the Imperial Suite —sardine-plan mattresses on a ’tween-decks hatch top. Full fares were paid.

In recent years the general public have found that Matua and Tofua berths between Fiji and New Zean land are normally anything but plentiful. And people who before the war delighted in the Islands Round Trip from Auckland look upon it nowadays as wishful think -i ing, except for the fortunate fewj There are signs that competition is coming back to the Pacific passenger routes, but whether old j time sea travel among the tropical islands will ever return is very doubtful.

Meanwhile, consider a report id a Sydney newspaper in December! 1905: Captain Menmuir has just berthed Lever Brothers’ 1141-ton Upolu at Balmain. Aboard were nine passengers. Upolu had left Sydney on September 10, thereafter calling at Suva, Niue, Suwarrow, Manihikij Rakahanga, Penrhyn, Flint, Christ-j mas, Fanning, Apia, Swains, the Tokelau and Phoenix Groups, Pago Pago, Apia, most of the Ellice Islands, Gavutu, and then back to Sydney.

Trips like that were constantly available for the price of the Suva- Auckland fare of to-day.