SHIPPING JUBILEE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19394, 31 July 1926, Page 9

SHIPPING JUBILEE.

huddart-parker company. FORTUNES OF FIFTY YEARS. CELEBRATIONS IN MELBOURNE. Celebrations in connection with the jubilee of the shipping concern of Hud-dart-Parker, Ltd, are taking place in Melbount? to-day. The firm began business on August 1, lcS76, as shipowners and coal importers and merchants at Geelong,, and in a few years developed a number of flourishing cargo and passenger services between Inter-State ports and also between Australia and New Zealand, lhe. festivities are being attended by Mr. C. W. Jones, manager for New Zealand in Wellington, and Mr. A. Cerutty, manager at Auckland. The company was formed by an amalgamation of interests at Geelong, there being four partners, Messrs. T. J. Parker, Thomas Webb, John Traill and James Huddart. Tho last-named was appointed manager. At that time the firm owned but. three vessels, the barques Oliviu Da vies, Medea and Queen Emma. In 1877 the coal-importing business of Mr. Morley in Melbourne was absorbed, tLo firm thereby taking over the barques Frederica and Sparrow Hawk. The coal business at. both Melbourne and Geelong having prospered, it was resolved in 1880 to employ steam instead of sailing vessels and the steamers Nemesis, Lindus and Wendouree were procured from England. The Nemesis was a big ship in those days, having a gross register of 1383 tons, and carrying a crew of 27 and eight passengers in addition to 1800 tons of cargo. Interest in Commonwealth Trade. The next development took place in 1882 when the firm decided to enter the Sydney trade. This move made it necessary to purchase new steamers, with the result that the Burrumboet and Corangamite wero added to the growing fleet. These two steamers were among the first to use triple-expansion engines. In 1886 the Geelong-Melbourne business and the Interstate service, which had been managed separately, wero combined, Mr. Huddart being appointed generalmanager. Two years mter the present limited company was formed with a capital of £300,000, each of the old. partners taking up a fourth of tho shares, and Mr. Ernest J. Parker joining the board in addition. A year or two later Mr. W. T. Appleton, present chairman of directors, and Mr. John L. Webb, also became directors. Trade with Tasmania was commenced in 288S, first with the paddle-steamer Newcastle, and then with the Googee, running between Melbourne and Lattnceston. The service between Sydney and Hobart was initiated by tho hteamer Wendoureo the same year, while in IC9Q the operations of the firm were .extended to South and Western Australia with the Nemesis. Trips to Sydney for £l. In 1893 it was decided to enter tho inter-Colonial trade with New Zealand in opposition to tho Union Steam Ship Company. In announcing its intentions, the company said: "Wo have not entered into this trade with any idea of ousting a powerful company that has in tho past deservedly received a good reward for enterprise and good management. Wo fight to secure a firm establishment in an extensive and rapidly-growing tiado which cannot for ever remain in the exclusive possession of the Union Steam Ship Company. The now steamer Tasmania was thereupon placed in the Sydney-New Zealand service, calling at, Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton and Dunedin. Sho later had as consort the steamer Angian, purchased from the Union Steam Ship Company, and then trading to South Africa. Freights atid passenger fares immediately became subject to a price-cutting war, the salcon fare from Auckland to Sydney being £2 and the steerage fare £l. For £4 15s it was possible in 1894 to take a sea voyage of 18 days by the Tasmania from Sydney, with first-class cabin accommodation and tho opportunity of visiting Auckland, Napier, Wellington, Lyttelton and Christchurch. The fare works out at less than 5s 6d a day. From 1895 onwards rapid development took place in the company's trade with New Zealand and Tasmania. Six large passenger steamers were added to its Heet, the Ulimaroa running between Melbourne, Hobart, Bluff, Dunedin, Lyttelton, Wellington and Sydney, the Wimmera and Victoria between Sydney, Auckland, Gisborne, Napier, Wellington, Lyttelton and Dunedin, the Riverina between Sydney and Melbourne and Western and South Australia, th« Westralia between Sydney and Hobart, and the Zealandia between Australia and Canada. Naming of the triimaroa. The four largest vessels of the company's fleet to-day are the Ulimaroa, ply* ing in the passenger service between Sydney and Auckland and Wellington; the Zealandia, Sydney to Fremantle; th« Riverina, Sydney to Hobart; and tho Nairina, Melbourne to Launceston. ( The Ulimaroa was built in 1908 and her name is taken from Hawkesworth's edition of "Captain Cook's First Voyage" (vol, 11, chap. 5): "December 9. 1769, Doubt' ]ess Bay, N.Z.—-While we lay becalmed,, several canoes came oif to us . . . and finding these people so intelligent we inquired if they knew any country besides their own. They answered that their ancestors had told them that to the northwest by north or north-north-west there was a country of great extent called Ulimaroa, to which some people had sailed in a verv large cano?, and that only a part of them had returned and reported that, after a passage of a month, they had seen a country where the people eat hogs." Since the company was formed, three of its steamers have been lost on the New Zealand coast. The Tasmania, the vessel which inaugurated the Huddart-Parker service to New Zealand, was wrecked near Gisborne on July 29, 18S7, with the loss of ten lives. The Elir.gamite was wrecked at Three Kings on November 9, I**, with the loss of 45 lives, while the \*un in era was sunk by the explosion, of » German mine oft the north coas on June 26, 1918, when 26 lives were lost. With the addition of the Hebburo to the company's fleet, the tonnage has • JW» reached' 42,955 tons, with an additional 18*353 tons through the firm's ussoc.auon with two other Australian companies*