Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Canterbury Provincial District]

The New Zealand Shipping Company, Limited

The New Zealand Shipping Company, Limited. Head Offices, 138 Leadenhall Street, London, E.C., and Christchurch, New Zealand. Mr. H. P. Murray-Aynsley is Chairman of Directors in New Zealand, and Mr. Isaac Gibbs, General Manager for the Colonies. The New Zealand Shipping Company was founded in Christchurch in 1872 with a capital of £100,000. In the following year the capital was increased to £250,000, and has since been increased to £800,000. Prior to 1872 the trade to and from the Colony was in the hands of two firms; but in that year a combination of merchants and agriculturists in New Zealand formed the company, considering that the time had arrived when their interests demanded the establishment of an independent line. At first the newly-fledged institution had to depend mainly on chartered ships, but gradually it secured a fleet of its own, in which large numbers of passengers were conveyed. Between the years 1877 and 1882, inclusive, when the New Zealand Shipping Company was under contract with the New Zealand Government to carry immigrants from the Old Country, its monthly sailing vessels brought out close on 20,000 immigrants and passengers. In January, 1883, the s.s. “British King,” 3559 tons register, came from London as the pioneer of the company's direct monthly line of steamers. With the object of constructing steamers which would make the passages with regularity under forty-five days out and forty-two days Home, and to facilitate the frozen-meat trade, the company contracted with the firm of Messrs. John Elder and Co., Glasgow, for the building of five steamers all fitted with refrigerating machinery, and chambers capable of carrying 12,000 to 15,000 carcases of mutton, and with accommodation for about eighty first class, eighty second-class, and 250 third-class passengers. the meat chambers have since been enlarged to double the original capacity. The great expansion of trade demanded more accommodation for cargo than was afforded by the mail liners, and the company therefore acquired three cargosteamers—the “Tekoa,” “Otarama,” and “Waikato,” and built the “Waimate” and “Rakaia,” making ten steamers in all, besides chartering a large number of sailing vessels and steamers for homeward loading in addition to the permanent fleet. At present (1902) the company's fleet consists of the following steamships: “Aorangi,” “Miowera,” “Otarama,” “Papanui,” “Paparoa” (twin screw), “Pareora,” “Petone,” “Rakaia,” “Rimutaka” (twin screw), “Ruapehu” (twin screw), “Tekoa,” “Tongariro” (twin screw), “Waikato,” “Waimate,” “Wakanui,” and “Whakatane.”