New Zealand taxpayers are helping to obtain a 45.5m flat-bottomed barge to be used as a temporary inter-islands ferry for Tonga.
The Tongan Government has used funding from New Zealand and Australia to find the landing craft in Sarawak, Malaysia, Matangi Tonga newspaper's website reported. It is replacing the Princess Ashika, which sank last August, killing at least 74 people, most of them women and children.
An inspection team from Nuku'alofa was assisted by Steve Young, of Pacific Shipping, who was hired by the NZ Government's foreign aid arm, NZAid, and Kiwi Dennis Nisbet, who owns a company that specialises in crewing and ship delivery.
The ferry service is to start from the first week of April until November, when a new ferry being built in Japan is expected to begin operation.
NZ help with interim ferry
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