Western Star WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1938. SHIPPING.

Western Star, 2 August 1938, Page 2

Western Star WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1938. SHIPPING.

Tlie progress of New -Zealand since it was first discovered has been due. to the shipping companies which built vessels to carry its produce to England and other parts of the world. In the early days steam ships were unknown, and at every port in the Dominion large fleets of sailing ships could be seen loading wool, grain and other produce. This year the Shaw Savil) and Albion Line celebrates the eightieth anniversary of its foundation in 1858 by Mr Robert Ewart Shaw and Mr Walter Savill. These t wo Shipowners commenced, business under the title of Shaw Savill ' and Co. by chartering sailing vessels for despatch to New Zealand, and since that time the Shaw Savill Company., has been very intimately connected with the development and prosperity of that far-flung Dominion. The company played a large pait in the carnage of emigrants to New Zealand in the latter - half of the nineteenth century, and not only carried. British troops to fight in the Maori wars, hut also New Zealand troops to the South African War and large numbers to the Great War. The event in the com-

pany’s histoiy of which it is most proud, however, took -place on. February, 15, 1882, when the Albion sailing vessel Dunedin left Port Chalmers, New Zealand, for England with the first consignment of frozen meat on board, thus pioneering the carriage of frozen produce from New Zealand to the Old Country—an historical event that laid the foundation of the economic progress of the Dominion. By constantly keeping abreast of the changing conditions of expanding trade aud ever-advancing science, the Sha-w Savil.l and Albion Company has consistently maintained its connection with Britain’s furthermost* Dominion, and in addition has in recent years acquired substantial interests in the Australian trade. In 1932 the company took over the long-estab-lished business of George Thompson and Co. Ltd. (the Aberdeen Line, to Australia), and later acquired the interests in the passenger and cargo trade to Australia via South Africa of the White Star Line. In addition the Shaw Savill Company are joint owners and managers 1 of the Aberdeen and Commonwealth Line, which operates the well-known “Bay” vessels to Australia via Suez and Colombo. The fleet has grown from a few sailing vessels to the present combined fleet of modern steam and motor vessels aggregating 380,000 gross tons. In accordance with this traditional policy of progress the company will, with the Dominion Monarch (27,000 tons), inaugurate a new service to-New Zealand via Soulh Africa and Australia, calling en route at Teneriffe or Madeira, Cape Town, Durban, Fremantle, Melbourne, and Sydney. The new service will thus provide a link between England and her three great dominions of the Southern Hemisphere.