Briefly

• P & O’s cruise ship, Island 'rincess, a sister ship of the Pa ific Princess, will visit the outh Pacific in November, he will arrive at Melbourne n a southbound cruise from tie US on November 4, and /ill be in Sydney on November . The Island Princess will sail

rom Sydney for Los Angeles

n November 7, via Noumea,

tuva, Pago Pago, Moorea,

•apeete and Honolulu. For the ast three years the Island Prin ess has been based on the US zest coast, cruising to Alaska, Mexico and the Caribbean, dke the Pacific Princess, the sland Princess has been fea ured in the American TV cries, Love Boat. • Daiwa Navigation Co. td., of Japan, which operates jrvices into the Pacific area, is ) trade out of its financial

roblems. Recently NYK Line

Vippon Yusen Kaisha) was ailed in to help Daiwa in its

;construction programme,

and South Pacific services are now operated by NYK in con junction with Daiwa. Daiwa intended to resume the Japan-

Taiwan-Guam-Saipan service

on April 25 with the Ponape Maru. Mr Yogi Tsutsumi, as sistant manager of Daiwa’s business division, told PIM in April he hoped NYK would no

longer be required to help on

Pacific services by August.

Daiwa hoped to show credi tors it was a viable and profit able shipping line. It launched a rationalisation programme which would help to cut costs.

The Daiwa services from Japan to the South Pacific and Aus tralia continue to be supported by shippers. Two services out of Sydney after the first an nouncement of Daiwa’s troubles carried about the usual amount of cargo. • Solair, the internal air car rier in the Solomons, has be come a regional operator with the opening of a weekly service to Santo in the New Hebrides.

The aircraft leaves Honiara at 9 am on Fridays and arrives at Santo, after a 40-minute stop at Santa Cruz, at 1.55 pm the same day. The return flight, also via Santa Cruz, leaves Santo at 7.30 am on Saturdays and arrives at Honiara at 12.25 pm. The return flight connects with Air Niugini at Honiara, for Kieta and Port Moresby. A same-day connection at Port

Moresby for Hong Kong is

possible.

• New Guinea Express Lines has added a second container

ship to its Australia-Papua

New Guinea service. The

Waigani Express (formerly the

Bellatrix) has joined the Beteigeuze (which will be

renamed Niugini Express).

There will be a 12-day service from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to Port Moresby, Alo tau, Lae and Rabaul. Two smaller ships, the Lae Express and the Moresby Express, will be withdrawn from the Aus tralia - PNG run when their charters expire. • Faleolo airport in Western Samoa is likely to get a pilot’s black star rating. A black star from the International Airline Pilots’ Association designates an airfield as “critically de ficient.” It is the worst of three

ratings from pilots. The other two, in descending order of the fitness of an airfield are orange and red. Mr J. Wilson, presi dent of the NZ Pilots’ Associ ation, writing in the association magazine, said a black star rating for Faleolo (it then had a red star rating) would mean a reduction in the operating standards for the Boeing 737 which used Faleolo on the

Apia-Auckland service.

• The US Civil Aeronautics Board has approved Continen tal Micronesia’s proposed fare

changes. Approval means a

15% increase in economy fares over Micronesian routes but new round-trip excursion fares between all points in Micronesia and changes in fares for longer hauls will mean cheaper fares for some travel lers. Fares for short hauls could rise by 25%. • A combined mother ship/ general cargo ship has been built by Sims Engineering Ltd, at Port Chalmers, near Dunedin, for Papua New Guinea. It is the fourth ship Sims Engineering Ltd has built for PNG under the NZ Government’s bilateral foreign aid programme. The ship is 20.2 m long. It is equipped with a refrigerated container and a blast freezer unit, which will enable fish to be picked up from various fishing villages in West New Britain. • New Services to Gau Island, Bua and Ba helped Fiji Air to carry 29% more passen gers in 1977 than in the pre vious year. The airline turned in a record net profit of $4B 036 for the year. The airline now uses four Britten-Norman Islander aircraft. It is paying its maiden dividend, 5c a share, on its 1977 profit.

• The Fiji slipway and dry

dock at Suva are working at ca pacity, with Korean and

Japanese fishing ships, based

on Pago Pago going there for

survey and overhaul. Between

April and August 12 fishing

ships from Pago Pago were to

go to Suva for dry-docking. • Captain Edwin Sands and three brothers have bought the

Zephyr, 220 tonne cargo and passenger ship, from Pacific Carriers Ltd, of Vila, and will put her into service in Fiji waters. She cost more than $7O 000, plus the cost of a lot of repairs. She was to make her first trip from Suva to Lautoka and then go on to a Suva- Lavasa service. The Zephyr has a capacity for 75 tonnes of cargo and can carry 27 passen gers in saloons and on deck.

When owned by Pacific Car riers she traded from the New Hebrides to Western Samoa, Tonga, Futuna and Wallis Island. • The final stage of reef blasting in Tokelau is likely to take place between July and September this year, writes Judie Teall from Apia. The blasting is carried out by a team from the New Zealand Minis try of Works, and aims to make the present channels safer for whaleboats. It will also enable the channels to be used at lower tide. The work will be carried out at Atafu and Fakaofo where coral and rubble from the initial blasting of the channels has now been removed.

Two aluminium whaleboats are now under construction in

Apia, and design work is going

ahead on a new towboat. The Tokelau Affairs Office in Apia is hoping to have the first alu minium boat completed in time for the May charter voy age to Tokelau. The boats are lighter and hopefully easier to

handle than existing equip

ment. If they prove satisfactory the present fleet of five whale boats will be replaced with alu minium vessels.

A new school boat for Fakaofo is also being designed.

The first school boat, built in New Zealand in 1976, never went into use, and is now tied up near the Fisheries Division in Western Samoa. The 13m vessel is being offered for sale

by tender.

• The Linblad Explorer, 2 000 tonnes, which has Swedish owners, will be based at Auckland or Suva in 1979, for six months, to make a series of South Pacific cruises.

She will make one cruise in the area later in 1978.