SHIPPING TO CHATHAMS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29016, 3 October 1959, Page 16

SHIPPING TO CHATHAMS

State Subsidy Approved < from Our Parliamentary Reporter > WELLINGTON, October 2. Under an agreement between the Government and Holm and Company, the Chatham Islands will be provided with a shipping service subsidised by the Government. Ships will make at least 15 voyages to the islands each year at intervals of no more than eight weeks. Mr N. E. Kirk (Government. Lyttelton) said today that the Government had been worried about the past irregular sailings between New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. “Although this new agreement will not necessarily mean that there will be more trips to the Chathams a year, it will ensure regularity,” said Mr Kirk. “This is particularly important to farmers, who will now be able to make more definite arrangements for shipping their stock and wool to the New Zealand sales. This should have the effect of improving the exports from the Chatham Islands, which in turn will no doubt increase the revenue from the wharf—the Chatham Islands County Council’s sole source of income.”

Mr Kirk said negotiations opened last May, and the agreement was effective from September 15 this year, the start of the stock and wool season. The first trip would be about mid-October. Mr Kirk added that the Chatham Islands shipping service had been provided almost entirely by Holm and Company since before the Second World War, except in special cases, when cargo had been carried by chartered ships or fishing vessels.