Naval vessel commissioned

Press, 3 September 1984, Page 9

Naval vessel commissioned

H.M.N.Z.S. Kiwi, the new Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve craft, was formally welcomed into the Navy in a commissioning ceremony at Lyttelton yesterday. The vessel is the second of four built for the Naval Reserve by a Whangerei firm as part of a $10.4 million package. She arrived at Lyttelton on August 11 to replace the reserve’s ageing motor launch H.M.N.Z.S. Kuparu. Yesterday’s commissioning was attended by the Governor-General, Sir David Beattie, and Lady Beattie, the Chief of the Naval Staff, Rear-Admiral

C. J. Steward, the Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff, and the Commodore Auckland. The Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay, also attended the ceremony, as did the member of Parliament for Lyttelton, Mrs Ann Hercus. Sir David inspected a guard on the wharf before addressing the invited guests and others who came to the commissioning. He said that he had served in the previous Kiwi, a corvette-style trawler used during World War 11. With her sister ship Moa she sank a big Japanese submarine off the Solomon Islands in 1943. Sir David

presented a framed picture of the first Kiwi to the captain of H.M.N.Z.S. Pegasus, Commander D. B. 8001, to be hung in the training ship. The wife of the Chief of the Naval Staff, Mrs Stewart, presented the ship with a visitors’ book. A commissioning cake was cut on board before Sir David and other guests were taken on a brief commissioning voyage in the Kiwi. The craft will serve a combined role of training ship, fisheries protection patrol craft, and search-and-rescue vessel. She will

be permanently stationed at Lyttelton. H.M.N.Z.S. Taupo and Moa were also at Lyttelton for the commissioning. Earlier in the day, emergency services at Christchurch Airport were put on standby for the landing of the R.N.Z.A.F. V.I.P. Andover carrying Sir David and Lady Beattie to Christchurch. The aircraft developed a minor fluctuation in the fuel flow to one engine, which did not require the engine to be shut down. The aircraft had earlier been diverted to Christchurch Airport from Wigram because of fog.