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White Wings Vol I. Fifty Years Of Sail In The New Zealand Trade, 1850 TO 1900

Control From London

Control From London.

The company's present fleet is thoroughly up-to-date. The principal passenger steamers are fitted for burning oil fuel, and the cargo boats with turbines of different types. The fleet has been increased from time to time until now, with its subsidiary company (the Federal Company) there are 38 vessels of 357,213 tons gross under its control, besides which it acts as agents for a number of other lines.

When the company started its line of steamers the financial control to a great extent drifted to London, and under the amalgamation scheme with the P. and O. Company, the whole of the ordinary shares in the Shipping Company were taken over by the P. and O. in exchange for an equivalent amount of P. and O. stock.

The first shipment of frozen meat from Auckland was taken by the company's barque Mataura in 1883, and as there were no shore freezing works in those days, the fresh killed meat had to be taken down to the ship and frozen on board. As may be imagined, this was a very slow process. The condition of the first shipment on arrival at London was not satisfactory, and many were the difficulties that had to be got over before the meat trade was brought up to its present state of efficiency.

On examining the old documents of the Freight Company one cannot help noticing how things have changed during the last 50 years in Auckland, one instance of it being that out of 67 names appearing on the original list of shareholders in the New Zealand Freight Company only six of the firms are now in existence: A. Clark and Sons, E. Porter and Co., W. C. Wilson, H. Brett, A. Buckland and Sons, Kempthorne, Prosser and Co. (N.Z. Drug Co.), and H. B. Morton.

It is interesting to note that from 1872 to 1922 the Freight Company and the New Zealand Shipping Company had only two managers in Auckland—Mr. John Batger, who was secretary of the Freight Company, and afterwards local manager of the Shipping Company, serving from 1872 to 1886; and his successor, Mr. C. V. Houghton, who retired last year, after having managed the Auckland branch for over 36 years.