THE RANGITIKI

Southland Times, Issue 20663, 19 April 1929, Page 8

THE RANGITIKI

RECEPTION ON BOARD

FOUR HUNDRED GUESTS

RECEIVED

. APPOINTMENTS INSPECTED Over 400 guests of the New Zealand Shipping Company attended a reception yesterday on the new motor passenger and cargo, liner Rangitiki at present berthed at Bluff. The guests included representatives of the various shipping companies, the Harbour Board, Borough Councils, Chamber of Commerce and business firms. A large number of ladies also spent an hour or two aboard.

The guests were welcomed at the head of the gangway by the Commander, Captain E. T. Smith, R.N.R., and were served with afternoon tea in the spacious and beautifully decorated saloons, afterwards inspecting the wonderful appointments of the ship at their leisure. Special train, consisting of twelve carriages was provided by the local office of the New Zealand Shipping Company to convey the visitors from Invercargill and back. A non-stop run was made to Bluff, the train arriving shortly- before 3 p.m. The wharf presented an animated scene when the contigent of visitors left the train and waited their turn to mount the gangway- to the Rangitiki’s decks. Scores of visitors made the journey by- motor, cars being parked in great numbers along the main thoroughfare of Bluff. The ship’s spacious decks, saloons, and the comfortable, well-appointed cabins were closely inspected. The revelation of the luxury provided in the Rangitiki for sea travel came as a surprise to most after acquaintance with the less up-to-date vessels plying in the London—New Zeland trade. Altogether the ehip provided the best of advertisements for the Company, and its efforts to provide the best for passengers cannot go unrewarded.

It is of interest to note that the Rangitiki’s complement totals about 260 and in the provisioning department alone over 120 men find employment. An example of the despatch with which a large crowd could be handled was provided by the light refreshments distributed on board yesterday at the reception. Every attention, too, was given by the stewards to the visitors.

The visit of the Rangitiki is a notable event in the shipping history of Southland, and for that matter in the whole of the Dominion. She is the first of three 17,500 ton twin-screw motor passenger- liners specially built to the order of the New Zealand Shipping Company by Messrs. John Brown and Company-, Clydebank; Glasgow, for the ■London—New Zealand passenger and cargo service.

It is fitting that the Rangitiki—the first of a trio that may be regarded as the “diamond jubilee ships” of the companyshould revive in the fleet the name of one of the first four clippers owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company after its foundation nearly 60 years ago. The long and sucessful career of the company which has been intimately associated with the remarkable development of the Dominion and its overseas trade, is epitomized in the name Rangitiki. The first ship that bore it was a little iron clipper of 1188 tons, 210 feet long and 35 feet in breadth, built at Hull in ' 1863. The new Rangitiki is the largest ship'in the trade between New Zealand and London, and one of the largest motor liners in the world.