NEW EAST COAST SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14586, 24 January 1911, Page 7

NEW EAST COAST SERVICE.

TO DEVELOP TAURANGA.

The now Wellington shipping company, which is to trade on the east coast, promises to have its first vessel running within seven months' time. Mr. R. Keene, of Wellington, who is organising the company, stated to a New Zealand Times representative that the first steamer is now being built at Newcastle-on-Tyne. She is to have a speed of 14 knots, with a deadweight capacity of 500 tons, and accommodation for 30 saloon and seventy-five steerage passengers. Other vessels will be ordered, and they will run from Auckland to Tauranga, Gisborne, Napier, and Wellington, calling at intermediate bays en route. The new concern is to be known as the East Coast Steamship Company. Mr. Keene intends to proceed to England in March on business in connection with the company. While realising that the company does not offer any prospects of being a very profitable investment at the outset, Mr. Keene said his interests in properties and other investments at Tauranga were so numerous that the increased values and progress of the district would more than compensate for the deficiencies in moneyearning by the steamers. Mr. Keene, who is also a big shareholder in the Tauranga gasworks, enthused over the resources of the surrounding district, which, he said, was being well cultivated, and would grow almost anything, aided by an exceptionally fine climate. There were at present two small wharves, but the Government intended to put up a new wharf.