The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-10-27
T H E
THE UNION STEAMSHIP COMPANY OF
NEW ZEALAND,

NEW ZEALAND.
Having outlined the new arrange
nlent by which the Australian mail
service is to. be continued for three
years, with Honolulu as the pivotal
point, it may be interesting to say
something regarding the Union
Steamship Company of New Zealand,
which has contracted to run the ser
vice in conjunction with the Oceanic
Company. The Union Company has
shows crest enterprise in the man.
agement and extension Of its trade,
and has now q feet of magnificent
vessels plying ON the coast of New
Zealand, between the Australian
colonies and New Zealand, and be-
tween Fiji and New Zealand. The
nucleus of it was established about 90
years ago at Dunedin, and very soon
after extended its operations and
bought out and absorbed the New
Zealand Steamship Company. having
its headquarters at Wellington, the
capital of the Colony. It was then
reorganized. The new organization
was named the Union Steamship
Company of New Zealand, and hav-
ing the field now to itself it began
that enterprising policy which has
made it by long odds the most power
full and successful steamship COM
pany in the South Seas. First-class
boats were built on the Clyde by
Peter Denny & Sons, and very soon
large and paying interisland trade
was developed. The Union Company
having rendered competition impos-
sible in New Zealand waters, next
turned its attention to Australia, that
continent Of vast undeveloped posi-
bilities. 1t bought out McMeckan,
BlackwOOd & Co., of Melbourne, and
took over their old feet of steamships,
which controlled the intercolOnial
trade between Melbourne and the
New Zealand ports. Very soon a
better class of boats were substituted
for the old ones, and the Union Conn
pany of New Zealand as efectuaIly
controlled the steamer traffic between
the Australian mainland and New
Zealand ports thenceforward as it had
done the cOasting trade of New Zea-
land itself. The Australian Steam
Navigation Company awOke to the
fact that it had great rival to con-
tend with, but the awakening came
too late, and it is now confined to the
Australian coasting trade and short
service to New Caledonia, in which
the Messagieres Maritimes Company
is a successful opponent. We next
find the Union Company taking Fiji
within the scope of its enterprise, and
doing a great deal to develop the
trade and resources of that archi-
pelago. It has also recently bought
out another independent steamship
line. af
Actuated by the same progressive
and fsrseeing policy, the Union Com
pany has thrust the Pacific Mail
Steamship Company of New York,
despite its great wealth and influence
and the fact that it has been heavily
subsidized, out of the steamer trade
between San Francisco and the Aus
tralian Colonies, aud by necessity
also from participating in the trade
of these Islands. The Union Com
pGny has contracted to carry the
mails and passengers between Sgd
ney and San Francisco and vice
versa but it has arranged with the
Oceanic Steamship Company, which
may be regarded somewhat in the
light of a Hawaiian enterprise, to
participate in the contract by per-
forming that part of the service
either way between Honolulu and
San Francisco. II has thus identified
itself with our interests, and will aid
materially in building up the COM
nerce and developing the resources
of this country. In the Oceanic Com
Pany it has worthy and vigorous
partner, and between them they are
destined to control for very many
years at least steamship navigation
between Australia and California and
all intermediate ports.
Not satisfied with these achieve
ments, the Union Steamship Com