.jpg)
The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]
The New Zealand Shipping Company, Limited
The New Zealand Shipping Company, Limited (Captain Henry Rose, local manager), Customhouse Quay, Wellington. Telephone 185; P.O. Box 281. Bankers, Bank of New Zealand. Head offices, 138 Leadenhall Street, London, E.C., and Hereford Street, Christchurch. London directors The Right Hon. Sir John E. Gorst, Q.C., M.P. (chairman), Sir Edwyn Sandys Dawes, K.C.M.G., Colonel B. M. Dawes, and Messrs. John Beaumont, Thomas Johnson, Murdoch MacIver, and J. B. Westray. New Zealand directors, Messrs. H. P. Murray-Aynsley (chairman), John Anderson, Percy J. Fryer, Joseph Gould, John Studholme, and the Hon, O. C. Bowen, M.L.C., of Christchurch, and Messrs. J. R. Blair and the Hon. E. Richardson, C.M.G., M.L.C., of Wellington. This Company was established in 1873 as a purely colonial institution with its head office in Christchurch, having a fleet of sailing vessels. When the directors decided to add steam vessels, there was a second issue of shares, this time in London, hence the establishment page 777 of a London Board. The Company's fleet consists of six mail steamers, viz., s.s. Aorangi, Kaikoura, Rimutaka, Ruahine, Ruapehu, and Tongariro; three cargo steamers, viz., s.s. Tekoa, Otarama, and Waikato, and ten sailing vessels. A four-weekly mail service starts regularly from each end between London and New Zealand ports, and the cargo boats run as required. Two new cargo and passenger steamers are being built at the time of writing (1895). The Company's fleet compares favourably with the steamers of other lines, and its operations have been most serviceable to the British and colonial public.