SHIFTING HEADQUARTERS

Evening Star, Issue 17822, 19 November 1921, Page 2

SHIFTING HEADQUARTERS

UNION COMPANY FOR WELLINGTON LOSS OF OLD CONNECTION. STORY Of 48 YEARS' PROGRESS. In less than six weeks’ time tiro headquarters of tho Union Steamship Company will havo boon removed from Dunedin to Wellington. To bo exact, _tho company’s activities will commence in the capital city after the New Year-holidays. Tiro movo has been expected .or some time p M t, .and now that it has come to pass Dunedin is beginning to realise tho loss of tiiis largo and prosperous company. About -two years ago a contract was entered into for tho extension of the company’s building in Customhouse quay, Wellington, in order to accommodate tho large number of employees who go to now headquarters from here. Additional stories nave been added to tho Wellington promisee. It was an extensive undertaking; but _ the work ia just about finished, and its wide portals will be ready to receive its increased stream of managers, clerks, and typists from Dunedin boforo tho ond of tho ycai. Preparations for tho removal _ of_ ell documents, bexiles, and office furniture havo been in progress for some weeks past. Several carpenters are busily engaged in tho company's store facing Cumberland street making cases and crates. The interior of the building presents a barer aspect ns tho days advance. Cabinets desks, records, and large and smallframed pictures of tho company’s old-time and modern steamers are gradually disappearing from the various offices, safely packed in cases and crates, and shipped to Wellington at intervals. Heads of the various departments and all those employees to bo transferred will take the northern trail before the New Year. Many of these employees havo spent the greater part of their lives in Dunedin, and some may not relish the change. When the move was first made known the question of the scarcity of houses naturally caused some trepidation amongst tho staff; but it pa hoped that ones the heads of tho families to be transferred get settled in the northern city they will be able to secure properties of their own. Some weeks ago all kinds _of rumors were being circulated in connection with tho question of accommodation. One rumor was to the effect that the Union Company had secured a lease of a large hotel in Wellington, and intended to remodel tho building as flats for its employees on transfer; but this rumor was only “hot air.” . , . The change has come, and the imposing building at the corner of Vogel and Water streets, which has housed the head office staff of the largest shipping company in the Southern Hemisphere for well over thirty years, will revert to what may be termed a branch office.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS CONTINUE HERE. The registered office of the company and the board of directors will continue in Dunedin; but the several departments will transfer to Wellington. It is estimated that some seventy members of the staff will bo no transferred: but the actual numerical loss to Dunedin will be something less than this, as a number of new appointments will be necessary to complete the local organisation. The Dunedin branch will, of course, remain as at present, and head office superintendents will be replaced by local superintendents. REPAIR WORKS TO REMAIN. There will bo no alteration so far as the repair work at Port Chalmers is concerned. On account of the exceptional conditions which existed during the war it was necessary to distribute the repair work over all the ports where it could be undertaken. Now, however, that the pressure is over it is the intention of the company to focus as much of this work in Port Chalmers as possible, and accordingly it is expected that the amount of work to be done there will be greater rather than less than it has been in the past. NEW POSITIONS CREATED. It is a matter for congratulation that, although a considerable number of officers are being withdrawn, several now positions are being created, and the loss is net so great as might have been expected; while, as stated, the repair work, which, after all, provides the bulk of the monetary advantage to the community, will if anything bo increased rather than diminished. The geographical advantage of Wellington is so great that the change could not nave been indefinitely postponed. We have authority for saying that sentimental reasons alone have postponed the change until the present time, and the Dunedin public can rest assured that, although modifications in working arrangements have been unavoidable, the company will not lose its interest in the city from which it has sprung. HISTORY OF THE COMPANY. With regard to the Union Company itself, one of the chief causes of its success and of its present pre-eminence amongst Australasian shipping companies lies in the fact that, beginning with small things, it has so adapted itself under careful management to the growing needs of New Zealand that the growth and prosperity of the company have kept pace with the advance of the Dominion itself. The company was formed in Dunedin in 1876, the nucleus of the undertaking being the fleet of the Harbor Steam Company, consisting of three small steamers of a total of 811 tons, to which were added two now vessels, each of 721 tons, then on their way out from Scotland. These five vessels were engaged in the trade between Dunedin and Lyttelton and to the West Coast of the North and South Islands, and, notwithstanding their small size, doubts were expressed in some quarters whether they were not too much ahead of the available business. From such small beginnings, by the purchase of other shipping interests and by restless enterprise in seeking every opening where a trade could bo developed, tho company rapidly expanded its operations, and_ in so short a period as five years had increased its fleet to eighteen steamers, and embraced tho larger portion of the shipping trade on tho New Zealand coast and between New Zealand and Australia. Its entry into the intercolonial trade took place in 1878, when it acquired the fleet and undertaking of Messrs M'Meckan, Blackwood, and Co. ; in 1881 it entered upon trade to tho South Sea Islands; between 1885 and 1889 it purchased three small lines of colliers running from Westport and Greymouth to other parts of the colony ; in 1886 it took up, in collaboration with tho Oceanic Steamship Company, of San Francisco, the mail service between Australia, New Zealand, Honolulu, and San Francisco; and in 1887 despatched its first small steamer in the Calcutta service, which has since grown to considerable proportions. An important step in the expansion of the company was made in 1891, when it acquired tho business of the Tasmanian Steam Navigation Company and its fleet of eight steamers, and thus secured tho interest in tho trade between Tasmania and Australia, which it has retained ever (dnee. In other directions it was continuing to extend its operations, and by 1900 the fleet numbered fifty-six, with a tonnage of 77,738. In 1902, however, the operation of the American shipp'ng laws as regards traffic between Honolulu and San Francisco led to tho company’s withdrawal from the San Francisco mail service, but it found compensation by purchasing an interest in the Canadian-Australian Lino, of which it eventually became eolc proprietor,' and for the development of which it has provided large and _ powerful eteamerc, culminating m the Niagara, of 13.416 tons. The steamers of the lino, which forms tho first stage of the “AllRed route” -between the Australasian colonies and the United Kingdom, maintain a monthly mail service between Sydney, Auckland, Fiji, Hcnolulu, and Vancouver, and alternate with the vessels in the company’s other mail service, initiated, some years later, between Sydney, Wellington, Rarotcnga, Tahiti, and San Francisco. A further and more recent development has been the establishment of a monthly cargo service between Australasia and Canadian and United States Pacific port*. In addition to the mail tfcwsarq, the M

built up services with tho South Sea Islands, starting with its first venture into these waters in 1881, and now hoe linos from New Zealand and Australia ip Fiji. Samoa, and the Tongan Group, and to thS Cook Islands and Tahiti,

The company extended its operation# still further afield in 1912 by the purchase of four large steamers engaged in the trade between the United Kingdom and Australasia, and though _ some of these were lost before and during the .war, it now has three vessels, of an aggregate tonnage of 29,958, thus employed. During the war the company’s ships played an important part, principally in the" transport of tho New Zealand Forces. At one time no fewer than ftinoteen vessels, of an aggregate tonnage of 118,455, were under hire to the various Governments. Eight steamers, aggregating 54,716 tons, were lost through enemy action, but the company set to work tq replace these, and this month the number of its steamers is cighly-nne, with an aggregate tonnage of 266,503, and with crews totalling, when fully employed, some 4,000. The establishment of this great fleet has naturally entailpd a constant policy of shipbuilding to keep up with or ahead of requirements, and scarcely a year has passed without one or more important vessels arriving from the builders’ hands, each showing some improvement on _ its predecessor, and in design, construction, and equipment displaying tlw_ very latest developments in -naval architecture. It raav bojnenlioned that among the vessels built for the company weie the first, seagoing merchant ships constructed of sterol, the first driven by turbines, the first fitted throughout with electric light, and the largest to burn oil fuel, and the company now has under construction one oi tho largest Diesel ships yet built. These are but matters of detail; but they are illustrative of the spirit of enterprise which has always distinguished tho company, and- whiefi has without doubt been one of the main factors in its magnificent achievement.