Matson Looking
pp. 56-57 · Read in the full issue
Out For New
South Seas Ports
A call by the Mariposa at N kualofa on October 10 next ye will be the first-ever call by Matson liner at Tonga’s capitj Mariposa will berth at the recent! opened Queen Salote Memori Wharf (PIM, Oct., p. Ill), and t 400-odd passengers will disembark f several hours’ sightseeing before t liner leaves the same day.
Mr. W. F. Meeske, Matson’s vk president. South Pacific, said November that Matson freight* used to make periodic calls at Nuk alofa many years ago but the lin< two liners Mariposa and Mon ter were unable to berth because of i adequate facilities.
“I went to Tonga recently to i spect the new wharf,” he said. “T facilities are excellent. There plenty of deep water next to t wharf and the waiting room is ve good.”
Mr. Meeske said Matson wou call at Tonga more regularly aft next year. Its 1968 schedules we already made up, but the 1969 pr gramme was under review and Ton was most certainly in it.
He said his company’s liners h; been making short calls at Niuafoo or “Tin Can Island”, on the outskii of the Tongan Group, 400 miles fro Nukualofa, since 1962 and they wou continue to do so.
Not all rich Americans
Mr. Meeske said travellers ( Matson ships were “not rich Amei cans who have to have everythii laid out for them”.
“American round-trippers doi mind primitive conditions in tl Islands as long as there are got sanitary facilities,” he said.
“If they wanted built-up showcas they have plenty of skyscrapers aloi Waikiki Beach in Hawaii—they e: pect something different in the Sou Pacific and hope to fit in with tl people down there.”
Vila will be another new port f< Matson when the Monterey calls c September 13 next year. As Vila h; no adequate wharfing facilities f< the liner, she will anchor in the ha bour and passengers will be take ashore by launch.
Mr, Meeske said Australians ar New Zealanders made up about 2
r cent, of the passengers carried by atson on the line’s 16 trans-Pacific jssings a year. The remainder were >stly Americans.
“We get about 40 per cent, of >eat business of people who travel th us,” he said. “This is very nice t it creates one problem—some les the seasoned passengers get a le tired of seeing the same islands ;ry trip. ‘So we always have to keep our on new stops to make. Hence : stops at Vila, Nukualofa and also dbourne next year.”
Mr. Meeske said other ports the s had considered in the South afic included Honiara, Port wesby and Lautoka. ‘lt’s very hard to put Port >resby and Honiara calls on our as we have to run a regular three skly schedule. I suppose Matson the only shipping company in the rid running a regular run for ise passengers,” he said.
Headed for Honiara and Port >resby we would have to steer a tinctively northerly course from Iney and miss out Noumea, Fiji, jafoou, and Pago Pago.” iPTEMBER maintained the trend of steadily increasing tourism in stern Samoa. There were 891 tors during the month compared h 845 in August. Some 150 Aus iians visited Apia during Septem compared with 51 the previous nth, but this was primarily due to visit of about 100 Australian *d dealers, who came from Pago 'O during a one week bonus holiday re. lome 27.3 per cent, more people ted Samoa in September this year n in September last year, and ing the first nine months of this r 14 per cent, more visitors have ived than over the same period year. fhe sharpest increase has been in tors from North America—up 66 cent, on last year. And what with linars in conjunction with the waii Visitors Bureau in California I Hawaii during November and erally increased, though still agre, promotional efforts by stern Samoa’s Economic Develop nt Department, this trend is ex ted to accelerate, PlM’s Apia respondent reported in November.