WELLINGTON'S TRADE WITH THE SOUNDS. SOUNDS FARMERS PURCHASE A STEAMER.

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 69, 23 March 1899, Page 6

WELLINGTON'S TRADE WITH THE SOUNDS. SOUNDS FARMERS PURCHASE A STEAMER.

[BY TELEGP.APH — PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Auckland, 22nd March. The Devonport Ferry Company has sold the steamer Durham to a syndicate of Southern farmers. The purchasers of the Durham are residents on the shores of the Marlborough Sounds, and they intend to use the vessel to carry their produce to the Wellington market. The Durham is now being overhauled on the Ferry Company's slip at Devonport, and will leave for Wellington at the end of this or the beginning of next week. The auxiliary cutter Mavis, which will act. as tender to the larger vessel in shallow bays, has already arrived at Gisborne on her way down the coast. [This is the fruition of the scheme as to which we have at various times recorded the progress. The syndicate was formed months ago, and has been in negotiation for the purchase of a steamer for some time. The Durham is a wooden screw steamer built in Auckland in 1875. She was long engaged in the AucklandThames} trade, and was afterwards in Kaipara Harbour. Her dimensions are — Length, 99ft sin ; breadth, 12ft Bin. depta, 7ft 7in. She is 72 tons gross and 54 tons, net, and her engines are of 30 horse-power.]