Kōrero: Mail and couriers

Steam-powered ships were still a novelty in New Zealand in 1858, when the steamer White Swan was chartered by the government to carry mail between the main cities. Other steamers carried mail to Australia and England. The White Swancame to a sad end in 1862 when, in a race to beat another ship from Napier to Wellington, she was wrecked on the rocks south of Castlepoint, on the Wairarapa coast. Many official papers on board were lost at sea.