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New Zealand Mail, Issue 871, 9 November 1888, Page 15

The Union Steam Ship Company have in their head offices a most ingenious oontrivaucß by which the position of any of the Company’s fleet can at a glance be determined. On a nicely prepared chart of New Zealand, tho Australian colonies, Fiji, &0., broad red lines are drawn from port to port showing the course of vessels. The chart is fixed upon a nice cedar frame in a horizontal A Bmall fiat-bottomed toy model of each vessel owned by the Company, with name on deck, is used to indicate the position of the vessel. Upon the receipt of information of the departure, direction of sailing, or arrival in port of each ship, the model is carefully adjusted to show this. For example, the Mararoa has, just left the Bluff for Hobart. The model of the ship is placed on the red line between the ports. She arrives at Melbourne, the model is removed to that port. Thus we have a comprehensive view of the ocean with its fleet without the labour of hunting through a multitude of names in their endless mutations in manuscript lists. This is a similar plan to that adopted to regulate the ship traffic through the Suez Canal.