The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-04-03
ICHEAP CRUISES AMONG SOUTH SEA ISLES
Pleasures to Be Found
in AustraIaSian
System.


with its ridiculously low fares, taught
the American people to travel, so that
/ the taste having been acquired, thou
sands upon thousands graduate annual
/ ly from trolley riding from town to
town, to luxurious railway travel They
| have been trained to travel, by easy
stages.
In Australia the native is tempted to
by steamship companies that offer fares
so low that before he knows it he
| has acquired the Gravel" habit and
is patronizing the big ocean steam
ers at the regular luxurious tourist
rates.
1t is interesting to observe how the
Australasian companies treat their
travelling public-in fact it is an OBJ
jeet lesson that America may do well
to study.
From Sydney, Australia, to the
farthermost of the South Sea Islands
even including those that are nearer
to Honolulu than to Sydney, there are
monthly two dollar and a half day
cruises that last from twenty days, to
as many months, perhaps; if you wish
to combine and include them all. 1t
is one of the objects the territorial
transportation committee has in view
to loop up these Australasian cruises
with Hawaii, and there is great hopes
of early success. Perhaps, by next year
it may be possible to start from Sgd
ney on three-months cruise to the
South Sea Islands, Australia and New
Zealand, at total expense not greater
than that incurred at home during
the same period.
To begin at the beginning, in 1873
James Burns, Scotchman in Australia, |
grasped the possibilities of water trans |
portation along the Australian coast by |
means of small but frequent boats |
Starting with sailing vessels he soon
turned to steamers of a few hundred |
tonnage, and even to this day, with |
boats plying to every part of the south |
Pacific, he seldom builds craft of
more than one or two thousand tons
burden, so that comparatively frequent /
service IS maintained even with the |
most sparcely settled island groups
Copra, or dried kernel of the cocoa /
nut, made James Burns, 'sCopra King -
of the South Seas. His vessels live
on the cocoanut, and carry passengers
as a side issue because it is the never
to be eradicated belief of this pioneer
in the south Pacific, that the tourist
and the emigrant are the great educa-
tors that will spread the advantages
of the lands they see and know, to
the rest of the world, so it is that
wherever the Burns-Philp copra steam
ers ply cheap cruise rates are made
to tempt the sightseer, and possible
settler.
OF the regular Burns cruises that to
the Gilbert and Marshall Islands reach
es out farthest to Hawaii. 1t is more
than $500 miles from Sydney to the
farthest island of these groups touch
ed at by the Burns-Philp boats, and
less than 1000 miles from thence to
Hawaii. The present corresponding
secretary of the territorial transporta-
tion committee took up in Australia
possibilities of extending this run to
Honolulu, but Sydney men are jealous
of Sydney's trade, and there was
fear of it being diverted, yet. when
Hawaii becomes eopra producing land,
as it will, cocoanut oil mills and soap
factories will be established on these
islands, and then if the Australians do
not send their boats to us with copra,
we shall send ours to their territory
to buy in competition. The Gilberts
are nearest to US, but it IS from farthest
off that we must look for early aid.
Burns Philip are agents for a line of
splendidly built large golfers that
ply between Sydney and Vancouver,
via New Zealand and FIJI, with occa-
sional stops at Honolulu. 1t is posi-
bic that these boats may soon be
equipped with a moderate number of
staterooms and arrangements conclud-
ed for monthly calls at Honolulu in
either direction. With the Burns
Philip two dollar and half a day.