ROMANCE OF COASTAL ENTERPRISE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 42, 17 August 1935, Page 28

ROMANCE OF COASTAL ENTERPRISE

(By "Argus.")

The history of coastal shipping about New Zealand is liberally bespangled with gallant ventures, with failures turned to successes, and with vigorous enterprise ousting the older methods. This is so particularly in the early steamer days, when opportunism led many men into the bankruptcy court, and many more into wealth and success.

In the 60's it was common for steamers to thresh their way across the Tasman with cargoes of livestock, and to be offered for sale when the freight was disposed of. An affair such as the Maori War was sufficient to draw any number of more or less well-found little,ships to the scene of operations, to reap a harvest while demand exceeded supply. • ■ .

So it was, too, that at the end of the war the Waikato River anchorage sheltered a flotilla of steamers, laid up there for want of trade. The gunboat Sandfly occupied a prominent place in the collection, as did the Prince Alfred (the property of the enterprising Mr. S. Hague-Smith), the Gundagai, and

the Alexander. ' Among the • smaller craft were- the Maori Chief, the Waipa,. the Pioneer,: the White Slave, the Bluenose, and the Rangiriri. OVERLAND TO AUCKLAND. About the recommissioning of the Maori Chief, a stern-wheel river boat with a lengtK of 100 ft and a draught of .barely a foot, an interesting, history is woven. Her owner, . forecasting a lean, time in shipping, left the Waikato, his debts, and. his steamer behind hint in a.hurry. As his principal creditor Mr. Hague-Smith took over the Maori Chief. She became the first ship of a great new venture which advanced the cause of steam yet further on the New-Zealand coast. Mr. Hague-Smith's first problem was to transfer his newly-acquired vessel, to Auckland. Her low freeboard and light draught made the run round the coast unduly risky, and for the same; reasons towing was also impracticable. It was then decided to take the ship overland! For the job a great wagon over 80ft long was built of sturdy timber, and was fitted with six broad-tired wheels. Ropes, shafts,- and harness for 36 bullocks were provided. The vessel was run ashore near her anchorage at the mouth of the Waikato River. ( A broad way was made down to her1 restingplace on the sloping shore, and the boiler, engines," wheel, and all heavy parts were carefully removed. The hull was then run up as far as was possible, and. the ever-useful jacks, which have played their part in the saving of many a stranded vessel around the coast, were used to lift it bodily from the ground. . ' The wagon was then backed in;beneath the suspended hull, which was lowered into it and secured for the long trek to Auckland. Thirty-six bullock-power drew her on to the highway, and along it to the Queen City. Down Pitt Street she went,,: to the waters of the Waitemata, where she soon became a very well-found little side-paddler. A NEW VENTURE. Her duties, took her to the Thames, 1 where the goldflelds had been opened on August 1, 1867, where she was to act as a tender to a new line of steamers". Mr. Hague-Smith was establishing. Previous to this the rather spasmodic schooner service of the early days had been carried out between Auckland and the newly-opened camps. ,_...■ The old Prince Alfred was scrapped, and her engines were removed and fitted up in a new ship, the Royal Alfred, which was one of trie earliest products of the North Shore, Auckland. Mr. James Stewart designed plans for her boiler, which was manufactured by P. .N. Russell and Company, of Sydney. It is supposed that the worthy shipwrights of Auckland were not too proud in this case, as they were in the case of the Governor Wynyard, to ask for outside assistance! So in 1868 the Royal Alfred steamed down to Thames for the first time,: to remove at least; some of the uncertainty and risk that attended not only ithe winning of -gold but its transport back to civilisation. Captain A. Fairquhar,, afterwards" well-known on the coast, was in command. Soon after, the steamer Duke of Edinburgh (with Captain W. Farquhar, brother of the Royal Alfred's .skipper and later for many years in the Northern Company, in command) came across from Australia to" enter the trade. LOSS OF THE FAVOURITE. Some months later, the Favourite came up from the West Coast trade, and was lengthened, but proved top slow'and too costly. She was sent to Napier, arid on the way went down with the loss of all on board. Fine up-to-date ships such as the' Williams and the Golden Crown were sent across by the Australasian Steam Navigation Company, and the trade flourished. ■ ■■ : ; Near the end of 1873, Mr. HagueSmith sold out to the newly-formed Auckland Steam Packet Company. A diminution in trade due to the.settling down of the gold-mining business, made the Royal Alfred too costly, and the last we hear of this- ship about New Zealand is her sale to the-Port-

THE FOUNDING OF A SERVICE

| Jackson Steamship Company, and her trip to Sydney under Captain W. Farquhar. . So the enterprise of one man gave way to the consolidation of a company. That company passed on the everbrightening torch to the Northern Steamship Company, which has carried it-to the present day.