OUR ISLAND TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 166, 14 July 1914, Page 4

OUR ISLAND TRADE.

iWe congratulate the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and l hi? colleagues on their decision to submit to the I'rcion Steamship Company an emphatic protest against the disabilities and losses to which Auckland is now subjected by tho present inadequate and unsatisfactory condition of the is-

land! steamer service. Up to a few months ago we bad an efficient fortnightly service in which three steamers we-re engaged. Cs'oiv the. two larger boats which were engaged on the round (rip between Auckland, the islands and

Sydney h<ave been withdrawn, so far as Auckland is concerned, and- the Navua, the smallest of the three, which used to lie employed only on th-e Fiji run. is now supp-uecd' to meet all the requirements of our extensive and valuable island trade, with a monthly service. The

effects of such a change can easily be imagined; and some of them arc set out clearly and forcibly in the letter which Mr. 15. Kent, as president of the Chamber of Commerce, has addressed to the I'S.S. Company. It iis generally admittcJ' thai the Navu-.i is far too small to cope with our island trade. The natives

uf I'.mga .In not even find' i; worth their while to cut their bananas for the Auckland market because they have so little chance A securing cargo room; aud saloon passengers on the Navua are often crowded into the sfecr.igc. Sow, it mu-n be remembered that Auckland, through tin- enterprise id its own merchants and shipowner.-. lias built up an extensive -and valuable trade with the '1.-lands: and this i- being positively ruined through lack of proper transport facilities. Mr. Kent states that from ."in to T."> per cent of the revenue originally derived from our island trade i* now being lost tn Auckland. Most of I ihe trade naturally being diverted to i Sydney, nnd on.-c taken from us. it. if not likalT to return &neh a condition 1 ol Butsislx ju&iAct asj tsBOB&i

of pulblic agitation, and as the U.S.S. OcuD-pany, when it withdrew the Atua and Tofua, promised bo reconsider the whole question if the new arrangement proved unsatisfactory, the time hae certainjy come to remind Sir James Mills of his pledge. 'At the same time we hope that Government will gyve careful attention to 'the grievance of the Cook Islands in connection with the Welling-ton-Sian Francisco service. As we have .previously explained, the interests erf Rarotonga are systematically sacrificed to other eonsideratione; and though Xew Zealand pave a heavy annual s u!b&-dy for this service, the boats constantly refuse cargo at Rarotonga 'because they are compelled, in terms of their contract with the Frenrii Government, to have lipaee for 1.000 tons of cargo when they get to Tahiti. Tliie is surely a matter of which Government should take notice. The U.S.S. Company is clearly neglecting our interests, and maJcing its arrangements without due regard for the commercial and maritime requirements of iKew Zealand in general and Auckland in particular: and. considering the very .substantial aid that the company receives from the State, it is purely the plain duty of Government and Parliament to intervene. _^-^_——_____