New Zealand - Shipping - Union Line Twin Screw Steamer "MOERAKI," New Zealand Australia Service - 1908 - Unknown Photographer - Real Photo Postcard Format #332285 - The passenger liners MONOWAI and MOERAKI were requisitioned from the Union Steam Ship Company to transport the New Zealand expeditionary force to Samoa. They departed King's Wharf, Wellington on 15 August and landed at Apia on 29 August 1914. - With little resistance from the Germans, the force took over German Samoa and administered the country until 1920. New Zealand then governed the islands from 1920, in a checkered history of repressive rules and unprovoked violence, until Samoa finally gained independence on 1 January 1962. (Source - https://www.maritimemuseum.co.nz/100-years-new-zealand-joined-ww1)