Speech
Annual Sea and Shipping Service
May I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand - in English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.
Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the morning (Sign Good Morning)
May I specifically greet you: Very Rev Ross Bay, Dean of the Holy Trinity Cathedral; Captain Chris Barradale, Chairperson of the Mission to the Seafarers Society and Alick Wilson and David McPherson, who organised the commemorative programme; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen.
Thank you for the invitation to attend the Mission to the Seafarer's AnnualSea and Shipping Service. As Patron of the Mission, I have been asked to unveil a plaque to commemorate the men and women who worked for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, and will do that momentarily. Before I do, however, I would like to speak briefly about the significance of the company.
For 125 years, the Union Steamship Company played a key role in New Zealand's development and its history. Founded by Dunedin businessman James Mills in 1875, for much of its history it was our country's largest private employer. It dominated coastal shipping and much of the Tasman and Pacific trade as well, ferrying goods and people their fortunes and their futures.
As the 1893 Official Year Book noted: "The Union Steam Ship Company's interests are so deeply interwoven with those of this Colony that it is almost regarded as a national institution."
As well as on its ships, many people worked at its marine repair workshops at Port Chalmers, at the Patent Slip and laundry in Wellington or booking and shipping agency offices in Australia, New Zealand and throughout the South Pacific. In its time it owned a hotel in Fiji, printing works, coal businesses and even airlines in New Zealand.
The names of some of its inter-island ferries, which it called a "steamer express service," became household names. In the 70 years that those ships linked the North and South Islands, there were two named Maori, two Rangatira, a Hinemoa, and two Wahine, the last mentioned meeting its tragic end on Barretts Reef at the mouth to Wellington Harbour 40 years ago this year, with the loss of more than 50 lives.
Not everyone thought kindly of the Union Steamship Company's service. In 1897, American writer Mark Twain, always quick with his wit, sailed with 200 others from Lyttelton on the Flora, which was licensed to carry only 125 people. He compared it to a cattle scow and said that he slept in a berth "as dark as the soul of the Union Company, and [that] smelt like [a] dog kennel."
Sadly, the company disappeared in the corporate manoeuverings of the late 1990s. The Red Funnel Line or its Anchor Line subsidiary no longer ply Cook Strait and its distinctive red flag, with the Union Jack in the centre and the initials U S S Co at the ends of the cross, are no longer seen in our ports and names Matua, Tofua and even Union Rotorua and Union Rotoiti no longer grace the green sides of ships in ports like Auckland Beyond them names like Awatea and Monowai are just memories.
But the company and its ships remain alive in the recollection of men and women who worked for it and, in a sense, for New Zealand.
It is fitting then that the Mission to the Seafarers should honour those who served the company, for the charitable organisation, through the dedication of its network of volunteers continues to provide a warm welcome to weary seafarers looking for some time away from their ships.
I congratulate the Mission this initiative and the Holy Trinity Cathedral to host this plaque.
In closing, I will quote from historian Dr Gavin McLean's 2001 essay, The Southern Octopus, in which he spoke well of the company's significance to New Zealand: "There were many Union Companies, for it meant different things to so many people. It is no exaggeration to say that the company touched the lives of nearly every New Zealander."
On that note, I will I close in Maori by offering greetings and wishing you good health and fortitude in your endeavours. No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.