OLD COASTERS' END.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 65, 18 March 1927, Page 5

OLD COASTERS' END.

KANIERI AND HUIA. USTXWCI PLACE AT AttOXLAXD BURIED IN RECLAMATION. TwoSmcll «tenner*, the Kanieri and' the Huia, both formerly well known in the New Zealand coastal trade* have found their last resting place within the area that is Being reclaimed on the western side of the Western wharf. Stripped of everything- of value, the vessels' were recently offered for Bale, but faHed to find a buyer. Application was then made by the shipbreakers who had dismantled them for permission to sink t)iem within 'the reclamation works. The Harbour Board being agreeable, the old-timers were towed inside and sunk if fairly deep water, so that at low tide not even their masts are visible. Eventually, as the work of the reclamation progresses, they "will be buried in the mud. Of the two steamers, the Kanieri was the better known. A steel vessel of 115 tons net, she was built at Dumbarton to the order of the Union Steamship Company, being launched in 1886. She came out to New Zealand under her own steam and was employed for some years in the trade between Wellington and Wanganui. Later she came to Auckland, entering the East Coast ports service. About 1893 she experienced a change of flag, being sold to the Northern Steamship Company. As a unit of the white funnel fleet she was employed for a number of years in the trade between Onehunga and Waitara. On one occasion she went ashore at Waitara, but was refloated and towed to Onehunga, where she was repaired. From Otfehunga the Kanieri was brought round to Auckland and employed in the Whangarei cargo trade, giving good service until about three years ago when Me was replaced by a larger steamer. From that time until a few months ago the Kanieri occupied an anchorage in "Rotten Row.**

Htua wm an iron steamer of only 60 tons net, She wu built at Auckland, being fitted with 25 hone-power engines, and first took the water in 1878, eight yMrs before the Kanieri was launched. After trading on the South Island coast for many years she was transferred to the West Coast of the North Island service. When the business fell off she was entered in the Auckland-Whangarei run, but the venture was not a success and the Huia was purchased by a local firm who laid her up in the stream. Seven* year. ago she again changed hands, but was not put into commission remaining idle until she was sold to the snipbreakers.