S.S. RANGATIRA

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 199, 20 May 1931, Page 11

S.S. RANGATIRA

New Ferry Steamer

LAUNCHING CEREMONY

Due Here in October

An occasion of considerable importance was the launching at Barrow-in-Furness of the Union Steam Ship Company’s new turbo-electric ferry steamer Rangatira, which is to replace the Maori in the Wellington-Lyttelton service. The new vessel, which is expected to reach Wellington toward the end of October, was launched from the naval construction works of Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd., by Lady Wilford, wife of the High Commissioner.

Included among the guests present were Sir Thomas Wilford, Sir Charles Holdsworth (late managing director of the Union Company), Mr. A. M. Michie (director of the London Board of the Union Company), and Commander C. W. Craven, 0.8. E., R.N. (managing director of the northern works and shipyards of Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd.).

Brooch for Lady Wilford.

At the subsequent luncheon, Commander Craven said that they owed a deep debt of gratitude to Lady Wilford for coming to launch the Rangatira. He did not think it would have been possible to find one to carry out this important operation whose associations were more closely connected with the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, as her father, the late Sir George McLean, was chairman of the company from 1875 to 1906. It was usual on these occasions to ask the lady who has launched the ship to accept a little memento. With the best wishes of the builders, he presented Lady Wilford with a diamond brooch, in the form of a true lovers’ knot with a big centre diamond. Accompanying the brooch was an inscription giving details of the function. Later Mr. A. M. Michie, on behalf of the Union Company, presented Lady Wilford with a bar brooch, three diamonds on platinum. He said that the directors of the Union Steam Ship Company had not forgotten the great services of her father, who was the first chairman of directors of the company.

Enterprising Firm.

Sir Thomas Wilford, the High Commissioner, said that he had been impressed during his visit with the enterprise of the firm. Vickers-Arm-strongs was a firm that was prepared to move forward and take a chance. It was a firm with confidence, and he believed that if there was one thing to-day that militated against the return to prosperity of this great country it was the want of confidence. .“You have got millions of frozen capital in this country lying in your banks earning practically no interest, because you haven’t got confidence, and if the sun of confidence could thaw that frozen capital and make it flow into the channels of industry and commerce what a change there would be among you. But here you have got a modern flrm with modern methods. Too long science has been divorced from industry, but here this morning science is married to industry, and in the consummation of that marriage you see the progress which has brought this firm to its present high state of efficiency, standing, and character, ■which must be the admiration of every true Britisher.”

Early Ventures.

Sir Thomas concluded by referring to the Union Steam Ship Company. “The first ocean-going vessels of mild steel and bilge keels were exemplified in the Rotomahana in the year 1879. The first vessel ever furnished throughout with incandescent light was provided by the Manapouri in 1882. The first turbine-driven vessel was found in the Loongana in 1904. The first passenger vessel using oil fuel under British Board of Trade certificate was the Niagara in 1913, and then the first large passenger ship using motor engines was the Aorangi, in 1924. There is a company which in our far-off land is part of the institutions of our land. The Rangatira in our language means ‘Big Chief.’ The ship that it sails alongside is the Wahine. The Wahine is the wife of the Bangatira or the Big Chief, so the Rangatira and the Wahine will still alternatively sail from Lyttelton to Wellington in days to come, and will keep up what I believe to be from my travels as fine a ferry service as can be shown in any part of the world.”