Amongst the many important undertakings which owe their existence to the foresight and enterprise of the New Zealanders, none has been more conspicuously useful than the New Zealand Shipping Company, which was formed at Christchurch in 1872 to facilitate the then increasing commerce between the Colony and the mother country. But the most sanguine of the promoters could hardly have gauged its beneficial influence in contributing to the opening up of a land which the late Governor, the Earl of Onslow, has so truly remarked is, by its industrial conditions; its climate, its institutions, and its laws of all our Colonies the one best suited to the British race.

Prior to its inauguration, the mercantile and industrial communities were, as regards ocean carriage, in the hands of a monopoly which subordinated the growing interests of the Colony to their own immediate benefits. As a consequence, the enterprising colonists who had created the trade decided to defend it by taking the initiative in establishing