NEW STEAMERS FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 1 November 1901, Page 4

NEW STEAMERS FOR NEW ZEALAND.

On August 17th there were launched from the yards of Messrs Harland and Wolff the first of three large twin-screw steamers which are being built to the order of Ismay, Imrie and Co, proprietors of the White Star Line, for the service between London and New Zealand, which, as heretofore, is to be conducted in connection with the Shaw Savill and Albion Company, This steamer is to be called the Athenis, and is to be followed by the COrinthic, and the lonic. Her length is 500, breadth 63, and depth 41ft, and the registered capacity 13,530 tons. Accommodation is to be provided for 94 saloon, 94 second, and 186 third-class passenger?, and there is also ample accomodation for cargo. . Conversing recently with a press representative, an official of one of the largest steamship companies declared that the day of small vessels was passed, simply because it was found much more economic to run huge ships like the Cymrio or Saxonia. “Since 1896 when the North German Llyod Company brought out the French Der Grosse and her three sister ships the various steamship companies have added at least forty vessels of over 10,000 tons each, and lines which formerly were barely known now compete successfully with their more powerful rivals by reason of the popularity of theft new vessel^.”

Ai the ame time there is no disposition on the part of the British owners to compete with the German “record-breakers,” which have to keep up their speed owing to mail subsidies.