Brief history of shipping in NZ

1642 Abel Tasman was the first European to discover the Islands, but he thought they were part of the mainland of South America.
1769 Captain Cook lands at Gisborne: Poverty Bay. He then circumnavigated the Islands and charted the coast.
1814 First Missionary Settlement established in the Bay of Islands
1839 The Islands were included within the boundaries of New South Wales
1840 On 22 January the S.S Aurora arrived at Port Nicholson ( Wellington) with the First settlers. On 6th February the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, whereby all powers of Sovereignty in New Zealand were ceded to Queen Victoria and Captain Hobson became Governor
1841 New Zealand proclaimed a separate colony.
1873 The New Zealand Shipping Company was inaugurated at Christchurch and commenced trading with 18 ships, including those under charter, having an average tonnage of 830 tons.
1883 The Company started a monthly service of Steamships1
907 New Zealand proclaimed a Dominion
1912 The New Zealand Shipping company amalgamated with the Federal Steam Navigation Company
1914 The Panama Canal was opened to the World's traffic on 15th August, 1914, and the Company was the First to make use of it later in the same year.
1914 - 1918 The Company lost 11 ships, aggregating 86,000 tons, during the First World War.
1939 - 1940 The Centenary of New Zealand as a British Colony was celebrated throughout the Dominion.
1939 - 1945 The combined losses of the New Zealand Shipping Company and Federal Steam navigation Company in the Second World War amounted to 19 ships, aggregating 195,000 tons

Courtesy of the late Owen Shaw, Editor of New Zealand Herald, Auckland's daily newspaper.