NEW SHIP LAUNCHED
Wairua For Strait Run
(NX. Press Association) AUCKLAND. November 16. The biggest and most powerful ship yet built in New Zealand waters, the 700ton Bluff-Stewart Island cargo-passenger vessel, Wairua, was launched at Auckland this afternoon by Mrs R. G. Gerard, wife of the Minister of Marine. The £300,000 shop, built at Mason Brothers’ yards, can carry 300 passengers and 260 tons of cargo, and is the first New Zealand-btritt ship to be fitted with stabilisers. The ship was blessed and dedicated by the Rev. J. Lawley Brown, padre to the Flying Angel Missions to Seamen. Hie deputy-chairman (Mr C. M. Richwhite) urged ttie Government to give its support to shipbuilding so that the industry could become competitively efficient. Mr Gerard said he was pleased to see what bad been achieved by New Zealand shipbuilders. He had been assured by hie senior nautical surveyor that the workmanship in the Wairua compared more than favourably with that of older and more experienced shipyards. “1 certainty hope it will be the forerunner of contracts for small ships and barges which, otherwise, would be placed in the Par East or European yards,” said Mr Gerard.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume C, Issue 29673, 17 November 1961, Page 22
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194NEW SHIP LAUNCHED Press, Volume C, Issue 29673, 17 November 1961, Page 22
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