TOO MANY PORTS?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 16, 20 January 1932, Page 10

TOO MANY PORTS?

DOMINION'S COMMERCE. "REAL ECONOMY" IMPOSSIBLE. "I Velieve that the export trade in New Zealand is spread over too many ports to give real economy in transport.' - remarked Dr. E. P. Neale, secretary of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, speaking on the Dominion's overseas commerce at the Empire Marketing Board poster exhibition at the Town Hall last evening. "The present system means that overseas vessels spend as many as 30 days on the New Zealand coast, most of this time being absorbed in making voyages to minor ports at which only a negligible amount ef cargo is loaded, and at which none is set down," he added. Two-thirds of the import trade went through the large North Island ports of Auckland and Wellington, but only one-half of the export trade was handled there. Further, 91 per cent of the import.trade went through the ports of the four main centres, but only 08 per cent of the export trade was handled at them. Bluff, Napier, and New Plymouth all ranked higher than Dunedin as export port 3 for 1930. The fact that imports were brought into.the country, more or less regularly, throughout the year, and that exports were highly seasonal in character rather complicated shipping facilities, and made the task of financing the Dominion's trade more difficult than otherwise would have been the case. .