New Zealand - Shipping - Rakanoa, one of the Union ships used on the Calcutta service, tied up at Port Chalmers. #602629 UNION STEAMSHIP COMPANY OF NEW ZEALAND, LIMITED - Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, Limited. Directors, the Hon. George McLean, M.L.C. (chairman), Messrs. J. M. Ritchie, E. B. Cargill, A. W. Morris, J. R. Jones, and James Mills (managing director). Head Office, Dunedin. Branch office, corner of Johnston Street and Customhouse Quay, Wellington. Telephone 7. Acting Manager, Mr. W. A. Kennedy. This popular New Zealand Company, which will be fully referred to in the Otago volume, owns, at the time of writing, a fleet of fifty steamships, including many large and superior vessels, and plans have been prepared for several new steamers. The Company maintains services weekly between all New Zealand ports and Australia and Tasmania; twice weekly between Tasmania and Australia; almost daily between the principal ports of New Zealand, radiating from Wellington; and monthly between Auckland and Fiji, between Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, and Sydney, and between Auckland, Raratonga, and Tahiti. The Union Company also holds the contracts from the New Zealand and New South Wales Governments for the mail service to England via America, arranging monthly departures from Sydney, Auckland, and San Francisco respectively. They have also established an important trade between New Zealand and Calcutta, and every season vessels are despatched to load corn sacks, wool packs, and general Indian produce, sailing for New Zealand in the months of July and November. The Wellington offices of the Company are in a splendid two-story brick building—at the junction of Customhouse Quay and Johnston Street—completed to the Company's order in January, 1890. Behind these offices is situated the Company's stores depot of two stories in height, and, in addition, the Company possesses extensive workshops and repairing yards at the corner of Taranaki Street and Victoria Street. The Company's fleet consists of the following steamers:—Monowai, Mararoa, Tekapo, Rakanoa, Talune, Rotokino, Tarawera, Waihora, Hauroto, Wakatipu, Manapouri, Oonah, Rotomahans, Taieri, Te Anau, Taviuni, Pukaki, Corinna, Flora, Ovalau, Pateena, Poherua, Upolu, Arawata, Ringarooma, Takapuna, Rotorua, Penguin, Janet Nicoll, Ohau, Taupo, Rosamond, Wainui, Dingadee, Omapere, Mawhera, Grafton, Brunner, Wareatea, Australia, Mahinapua, Orowaiti, Kawatiri, Southern Cross, Oreti, Moa, Manawatu, Beautiful Star, Maori, and Waihi, the total tonnage being 56,616. (http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc01Cycl-t1-body-d4-d63-d98.html) Port Chalmers - Port Chalmers is a suburb and the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, with a population of 3,000. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast from Dunedin's city centre. - According to Herries Beattie an old Māori name for Port Chalmers was 'Potakere' or 'Pou-takere' which may have indicated the hill where the tuahu, or altar, was sited. 'Koputai' is a later name and refers to an incident in which the tide rose and beached canoes were set adrift. When a peace was made between Kati Mamoe ('Ngati Mamoe' in modern standard Māori) and Kai Tahu ('Ngai Tahu' in modern standard Māori), about 1780, Koputai was one of two southern terminuses of Kai Tahu territory. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chalmers) The Line That Dared - The Line That Dared is the story of the first century of one of the most successful international commercial organisations ever begun by New Zealanders. It is also an important social history. - When this country was settled by Europeans, the newcomers occupied small pockets of land around the coastline, isolated from each other by steep, untracked hills and the sea. Linking these settlements, carrying people and cargo, was the first function of the shipping lines of the last century. - But the country itself is one of the most remote in the world and the Union Steam Ship Company, quite early in its life, stretched out to link up with the other nations of the region. In time it became the biggest maritime operation in the southern hemisphere, known throughout the world for its willingness to innovate, to push right to the forefront of marine technology. - The great Union Company passenger liners that moved people around the Pacific before the aviation age were themselves celebrities, as well known to New Zealanders and Australians as statesmen and entertainers. - This is the story of a great shipping line and its ships, and the daring businessmen and seamen who steered it through its first hundred years, to 1975. Author: Gordon McLauchlan (Ed) ISBN 10: 0959785302 Click the link provided at the top to purchase the book through the MAD on New Zealand Shop - Supporting New Zealand Authors and Artists