UNION STEAMSHIP COMPANY,

Otago Witness, Issue 2298, 17 March 1898, Page 20

UNION STEAMSHIP COMPANY,

when it developed rapidly. The Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, Limited, was established in July, 1875, for the purpose of taking over the business and plant of the Harbour

Steam Company. The steamers taken over were :— the Maori, 118 tons register, which made monthly trips from Dunedin round the Middle Island ; the Beautiful Star, 146 tons ; and the Bruce, 460 tons. In addition to these were two steamers which had been ordered from Home a few months previous in view of the extension of the Company's operations to the North Tsland. These steamers, the Hawea, 720 tons, and the Tawpo of the same register, arrived on June 10th, 1875, and July 2nd, 1875, respectively. They at once took up their running on the const, and at each port they visited on their initial trips they attracted a large amount of attention, being in size, speed and accommodation far in advance of anything previously employed on the New /ealand coast. Such was the fleet taken over by the Union Steamship Company and with which they commenced operations. The first meeting of provisional directors of the Company was held on the 31st May, 1875, and on the 12th July, 1875, the Certificate of Incorporation was issued. The Company's first directors were : Messrs. Geo. McLean (Chairman), E. B. Cargill, Hugh Macneil, Henry Tewsley, J. R. Jones, and James Mills (Managing Director). Of these four are still members of the board, viz. : — Messrs. McLean. Cargill, Jones and Mills, and Messrs. A. W. Morris and J. M. Ritchie have replaced Messrs. Tewsley and Macneil. The policy which the directors adopted at the first, and which they have conscientiously carried out until the present time, has been to look ahead and to make provision for all probable requirements and also to have reserve plant available for new channels of trade that offer employment for tonnage. Within a short time of commencing operations the Company purchased the fleet of the New Zealand Steam Shipping Company, which had for some years been running in the coastal trade of the Colony. The next important step was the purchase, in 1878, of Messrs. McMeckan, Blackwood and Co.'s intercolonial fleet, and by this purchase the entire intercolonial and the bulk of the New Zealand coastal trade passed into their hands. Energetic steps were taken to develop these trades and orders were sent Home to build several new steamers of the latest design. The courage of the directors was rewarded by seeing their fleet fully employed. Space at our disposal does not permit us to record how year after year the fleet and trade of the Company have grown to their present dimensions. It need only be stated that at the present time the fleet of the Company engaged in regular employment numbers 53 steamers of an aggregate tonnage of 67,264, while in addition there are three new boats in the builders' hands whose gross tonnage aggregates 6,000 tons. Every scientific improvement either in the machinery or fitting of A'essels has been brought into requisition for the construction of their -steamers, so that from the modest beginning already recorded the fleet of the Union Steamship Company has grown to be the largest and most powerful in the Southern hemisphere. The regular services of the Company include almost daily sailings between the principal ports on the coast of New Zealand ; frequent sailings between Australiti and New Zealand and Australia and Tasmania ; monthly services to various groups of the South Sea Islands and local services at Tahiti and Fiji. There is also a cargo service between New Zealand and Calcutta, and since 1885 the Company has been running the mail service between the Colonies and America in conjunction with the Oceanic Steamship Company of San Francisco. The Company has had a remarkably prosperous career, and although it has suffered some heavy losses through wreck of steamers on the coast, still when the number of vessels engaged and the nature of the services are taken into account, it has enjoyed great immunity from accident.