UNION STEAM SHIP COMPANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15954, 23 December 1913, Page 7

UNION STEAM SHIP COMPANY

AN IMPORTANT CHANGE. The statutory meeting of the shareholders of the reconstructed Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand (Ltd.) was held yesterday in the board room of the New Zealand Express Company's. building. Sir James Mills, K.C.M.G. (chairman and managing director of the company), occupied the chair, and presented tho report of, tho directors for the period that • had elapsed since October 1, tho date on which the new company had been called into existence. In the course of his remarks, Sir James Mills referred to the dislocation of trade which hod been brought about by'tho recent strike, and, comparing it with the strike of 1890, called attention to the fact that the interests at stake in the recent etriko wero much greater than were those in the previous, in respect that both the total trade of the dominion and the oversea tonnage entering and leaving it were now nearly threo times as great, as in 1890, while so far as tho company was concerned, tho proportion of its tonnago affected by the recent strike was nearly three times the total tonnage of the fleet in 1890. Sir James Mills recited the incidents which led to the action taken by the waterside workers, and recounted the steps taken by the company to minimise tho inconvenience to which tho public were put by the curtailment of the steamer services. In connection with this he spoke in terms of praise of tho loyalty of tho company's employees afloat and ashore, who had spontaneously tendered their services, and referred to the recognition of theso by the directors in the shape of a bonus of ono month's pay. At' the conclusion of the formal business Sir James Mills announced that as it would bo necessary for him to proceed fo England early in the year, ho proposed to relinquish the position of managing director at the end of the present month. He was pleased to be able to nnnounco that Mr Holdsworth, his colleaguo and general manager of the company, had been aopointcd to the managing directorship as from January 1. He (Sir James) would continue to hold a seat on the board, and would retain the chairmanship for the present.

Tho meeting passed with great cordiality, a resolution expressing their sense of the great value of the services rendered to tho company by Sir James Mills during the time ho had filled the office of managing director—a period which dated from the initiation of the company in 1875.