MORE CALLS WANTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 65, 17 March 1934, Page 10

MORE CALLS WANTED.

PORTS IN SOUTH ISLAND. REQUEST TO P. AND 0. CHIEF. The opportunity of placing before the Hon. Alexander Shaw, chairman and. managing director of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the desirability of making South Island ports more frequent first ports of call and ports of departure for British cargo ships was taken by, the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, when it learned in Christchurch that Mr. Shaw was to ha\*e the matter placed before him in Wellington before his departure for England, states the " Star."

The following letter was sent by the secretary of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, Mr. J. Roy Smith: —

"From time to time over a number of years, the matter of arranging for more direct ships to South Island, ports, particularly Lyttclton, has been under consideration by the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, . and. I am directed to intimate that this chamber would very much appreciate consideration of this problem by the shipping companies operating in the New Zealand trade.

"The experience of importers that their business ,is often detrimentally affected hy the prolonging of the period between the time that they order the goods and the time that . they are delivered, is worthy of consideration. Christchurch business men feel that they are operating under a distinct disadvantage in that the delivery of'their goods is delayed while the' ship which carries them is discharging at North Island ports. If this'difficulty could bo ameliorated by arrangement , for a number of ships to call at South Island ports first, it might quite conceivably cause a rearrangement of the cargo in such a way as to benefit the shipping companies by necessitating a lesser number of ports of call." • •