EARLY SHIPBUILDING IN AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13708, 26 March 1908, Page 3

EARLY SHIPBUILDING IN AUCKLAND.

Sir, —I read with interest- the address delivered by Mr. G. Fraser in Wellington on early-time shipbuilding and engineering ireAuckland, and reprinted in your issue of 17th. Mr. Fraser has been misinformed in several particulars. (1) Ho states that the. Governor Wynyard and ■ City of Auckland; were both "failures." It would ,have been. better if he had said where; the former's >' failure existed. The vessel ■was built accord-, ing to instructions given, by 1 the "owners..,She was of light draught, and, for her size,', , carried a large cargo, steamed, fairly vrol', , and was a splendid sea boat. Mr. Chantry.; . Harris (late journalist, of Wellington), ?a/ ' seafaring man, took her over to Melbourne" without accident, although there 'Was" a heavy, deck load, and both sponson beams sticking: out 011 either side. About 17 years ago Mr.. 0. B. Stone wrote to me, stating that the' Herald wan publishing an account of the various shipbuilding works * in Auckland, and had requested him to ask me to give . rny share (I being the oldest with the exception of Mr. Henry Nicol and Mr. Howie, of V, hang&rei), so I thought the building of the first steamer would interest the old identities, and shortly after my . statement was published in that paper, and was in 1894 copied into Murray's Almanac, a copy of which I now possess. I explained then* why the owners had to send her away. New Zealand was not then far enough advanced for steam vessels,:;and they (the proprietors)■■ were leaving for the goldfields of Australia. As a paying concern, I question if there hag been a vessel of her. size that has returned to her owners a better percentage for their outlay in so short' a time. On seeing the article in the Herald, Mr. Chantry Harris wrote to that paper a -graphic account of tho -voyage, and his experience in a very heavy gale of wind. (2) I thinik : Mr.; G. F. will find that- a small steamer built by the late Mr. Bach was the first iron boat, not the Rotomahana. Then, referring to 27 years elapsing before a uother steamer was built is a mistake. The late/Mr-YWm. * Se-gar built a small iron boat at the Thames. Messrs. Price built two—the Patiki and the Despatch. The latter, I think, was sold "for a mission beat for the Islands'. Then:"the Kofcuku for Mr. J. C. Firth, and a stern- v wheeler called, I think, the Rotoiti, both - built by Mr. "G. Fraser, sen., all of which were before the expiration of the 27 years named. Robt. Stoxe. Thames.