THE MAIZE TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 30, 5 February 1891, Page 5

THE MAIZE TRADE.

AUCKLAND AND BAY OF PLENTY.

NEW STEAMER FOR NORTHERN

COMPANY

The increasing importance of the Bay of Plenty maize trade and the greatly augmented production of that cereal in the vicinity of Tauranga, Opotiki, Whakatane and adjacent localities, is necessitating the introduction of berter facilities for the conveyance of the produce to Auckland as a distributing centre. Accordingly the Northern Steamship Company are taking steps to keep themselves abreast of the traffic by supplying a new steamer, faster and better suited for the trade than their present maize • boats, the little steamers Chelrasford and Douglas. They now report that their new steel steamer (the. s.s. Waiotahi) building on the Clyde specially for this trade is fast approaching completion and should be out here from Home by the end of June. The months of July and Augusb are those in which the " rush " of the maize season takes place, and the Waiotahi will arrive jusb in time for this.

From particulars supplied us by Mr C. Ransom, the manager of the Northern Steamship Company, we gather that the Waiotahi is to be a smart little boat of her class and well adapted for her special trade. She is a steel vessel, being built at Glasgow, of about 170 tons register, and is to carry 110 tons deadweight on a draught of 5 feet 6 inches. She will thus be specially adapted for bar-harbour work on the East Coast. She is 125 feet long, with 25 feet beam, and is being very substantially built. Latest reports from Glasgow stated that she was progressing very well. She is expected to leave the Clyde in April next, steam out by way of Suez and reach here in the beginning of July. She will be a twin-screw boat and will have a very fair turn of speed, being considerably faster than the present Bay of Plenty traders. She is to be christened the Waiotahi, after the river and district of that name near Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty.