UNION STEAM SHIP CO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13455, 4 June 1907, Page 6

UNION STEAM SHIP CO.

j- A 21-KNOT STEAMER. H-/-. [FROM; OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] - ' ■ London', April 26. A new and important departure is about to be taken by the Union Steam Ship Company of New | Zealand. % It constitutes a. step in advance of the policy which was originated some 20 years ago, when the s.s. Takapuna was procured to run fast" ferry services " between Lyttelton, Wellington, and Manukau, in connection with the Dunedin-Christchurch express trains. j Now, however, the Union Company purpose bringing down the transit time between Wellington and Lyttelton to nine hours, or less, for this distance of 175 •: miles. With this object a splendid new steamer—of whose design I gave particulars last yearis in course of construction by Messrs. Denny, at their well-known yards, on the Clyde, and will be launched on or about the 12th pros, by Lady Ward, the wife of the New Zealand Premier. The new boat will be named the Maori, and will have a speed of not less than 21 knots per hour This rate, if maintained throughout, would, of course, enable the Maori to make the passage from Wellington to Lyttelton, or vice versa v in eight hours and a-half, but she will hardly be forced constantly to full-speed, and so a ■ passage of nine hours in favourable weather, to 10 hours under less propitious conditions, may ordinarily be looked for. "This will be a great boon to travellers. ■'~':" .

I hear that the accommodation on the new boat will be simply magnificentsuperior to anything hitherto seen even in the Union boats, which, as I can affirm from personal observation, have no equal in this respect in any coastal steamers to be seen on the coasts of Britain or the European Continent. The best boats' employed on the British coastal and international services are greatly inferior as regards accommodation and fitting to the regular standard of the New Zealand Union Company's vessels. ' The turbine system is to be employed in the Maori, as this is found to be preeminently suitable to relatively short service work. Even this, however, does not exhaust the tale of the Union Company's fresh enterprise, for another new steamer was launched last week. She is intended to be attached to the Wellington Harbour as a tug and salvage boat, and it is declared by experts that she will be the best and most efficient of her class to be found south of the equator. She will have large towage power, and will be able to steam 12 knots at sea. I may mention that the completion of the l 21-knot steamer Maori has been unavoidably delayed by last year's strike, else she would have been ; ready for launching long ago.