FIFTY YEARS IN THE TRADE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 69, 14 December 1935, Page 10

FIFTY YEARS IN THE TRADE

Union Co.’s Trans-Pacific Services

A BRIEF HISTORY The Union Steam Ship Company’s connection with the trans-Pacilic services dates back to 18S5. In that year the contract between tlie Governments of New Zealand and New South Wales and t'he Pacific Mail Steamship Company of New York for the carriage of the English mails via San Francisco expired, and as the Pacific Mail Company did not seek a renewal, negotiations were opened up which resulted in tho Union Company taking the contract and carrying it on in conjunction with the Oceanic Steamship Company of San Francisco. The first voyage from this end was made by the Mararoa, 2598 tons, which had just come out from the builders in Scotland. Although the Mararoa was withdrawn after a few voyages to take her place in the intercolonial service for which she had been built, the mail service was carried on by the Union Company and the Oceanic Company with various steamers for many years with great, regularity. Ousted In 1900.

In 1900, however, the Union Company’s connection with the San Francisco mail service ceased. The Hawaiian group had lately been annexed to the United States, and under the shipping laws of that country foreign ships were debarred from plying between San Francisco and Honolulu; while recent legislation confined mail subsidies to vessels owned in the United States. The traffic between Honolulu and San Francisco and the mail subsidy which was being received from the United States were essential to the profitable running of the mail service, so that the Union Company was forced to withdraw and leave the service in the hands of the Oceanic Steamship Company, which, as an American concern, was not subject to the same disabilities. The Vancouver Service.

The Union Company theu turned its attention t<o the Vancouver service. The Canadian-Australian Line, founded by Mr. James Huddart in 1893 to undertake a mail service between Sydney and Vancouver, ha_d got into financial difficulties and had passed into the hands of the New Zealand, Shipping Company, which was running it with three steamers. In 1901 the Union Company bought a share in the service and eventually became sole proprietor of the line. By careful management and the substitution of new and larger vessels from time to time, it brought, the line, now known as the Canadian-Australasian Royal Mail Lino, or the “All Red Route,” up to a high state of efficiency. In the earlier days of the Union Company’s association with this line, the route was from Sydney to Brisbane, Honolulu and Vancouver, and later Fiji was included in the route. In 1911 the New Zealand Government granted a subsidy for the steamers to call at Auckland instead of Brisbane, the Australian Government discontinuing its subsidy. In 190 S the Union Company placed tho Makura, 8075 tons, on the Vancouver run, and in 1913 the wellknown Niagara, 13,415 tons, which in size, speed and equipment surpassed anything up to that time running to New Zealand or Australia. In 192 a the Makura was replaced by the Aorangi, 17,491 tons, then the largest motor-ship in the world. San Francisco Again. In 1909 the Union Company inaugurated a monthly service between Wellington, Rarotonga and Tahiti, connecting with the Oceanic Company’s steamer running between Tahiti and San Francisco. The following year it was arranged with the New Zealand Government that larger and faster steamers should be put on and the service continued right through to San Francisco, thus affording a monthly alternative mail to Great Britain. The itineiary was later extended to Sydney. For this service the Union Company puichased in 1911 the steamer Port Kingston, 7585 tons, which was renamed Tahiti, and which was placed on the San Francisco service. Since the less of the Tahiti the service has been maintained by the Makura and Maunganul, which maintain monthly sailings, alternating with those of the Vancouver line to provide a .ortnightly mail and passenger service. _ The discontinuance of the San i rancisco mail service, as announced in a cable message this morning, will deal a great blow to British shipping prestige in the Pacific, and will mean the loss of a valuable trade to Wellington. It will deal hardly with seafarers, too, for the withdrawal of the Makura and Maunganui will mean that the two crews, totalling some 300 men, w ill lo~e their regular employment.