Union Company

Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand Limited
IndustryShipping, freight and passenger services
Founded1875
FounderJames Mills
Defunct2000
Headquarters
Dunedin (1875–1921)
Wellington
,
New Zealand

Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand Limited was once the biggest shipping line in the southern hemisphere and New Zealand's largest private-sector employer. It was incorporated by James Mills in Dunedin in 1875 with the backing of a Scottish shipbuilder, Peter Denny. Bought by shipping giant P&O around the time of World War I it was sold in 1972 to an Australasian consortium and closed at the end of the twentieth century.