THE UNION COMPANY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13460, 5 December 1907, Page 5

THE UNION COMPANY.

THE WELLINGTON -PURCHASE

Per Press .Association.

December 4. The acquisition pf. the patent ; filip by the Union. Gpinpfiny, was effected, by .purchase. The Harbour, .Board, intended; to acquire it if. the riegotiations.o\ r ith the Gas Company failed, and the .chairman! com,-? plains that the transaction, has ibeen carried out. behind the ; Board's ba.cks,t<and,;isi against the spirit, .of what wok intended,, when the. Provincial Government gave itis assent to its. construction. ",Imay say,"

he adds, "that the Harbour Board will, not without. a struggle, eubinnV <to .seeing the foreshore at. Evans' Bay vested in a private company,,,,to- the., injury, of ihp " mosquito 'fleet" of .Wellington, : without invoking the opinion •• of: Parliament on the subject." ; , . ~.;•,.. '■ ; ':• DUNEDIN, December 4. The " Star " says ■ that the people of Dunedin and Port Chalmers need .have no cause for serious .apprehension at; the surmise of the Wellington papers,; that the acquisition by. the.-Union Steamship

Cbmpany of, Evans' Bay. slip, v.foreshadows: the removal of the Company's headquar- ; ters to /Wellington. : -Roth .at Sir .James Mills' banquet, at. Dunedin, • and at' the trial trip .of the Maori: ; outside Otago Heads, Mr Ritchie, one of the Company's directors, hinted that a change of head-: quart-ens ..was. never, likely ;to occui* undel" Sir James ■: Mjll's,' '■ inanogeirient,'' The, "Star" further .points out that the' Union Company, have. guaranteed to give £IOOO a year for twenty: years,. towards any deficiency of interest „ on; .the new dock at Port ■.-'Chalmers, which means that their vessels will ba docked there. The pre-; sent workshops of the Company in Taraiidki -afcreat' ■, have, proved .;inadequate■ ; fqr the, vCompany's growing fleet there, and tlie inteivst in the patent slip is natural, seeing that, the space on the foreshore' is so limited.: . ■■'.■'.-.■■','■'.'