THE WRESTLE FOR TRADE

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 594, 24 August 1909, Page 8

THE WRESTLE FOR TRADE

— « OUTWARD KAIPARA TIMBER. ' AND INWARD" 1 KAIPARA FOODSTUFFS i (By Telegraph -Special Correspondent) i Auckland, August 23 ' It would scefii as if Christchurch morohants ate capturing the bulk of tho Kaipara trade Tie Northorn Wniroa correspondent < of the "Herald" sajs —If JESOOO worth of tho trado between Auckland and Waikato j were annually transferred between the lat- , ( tor district and any southern city, Auckland 1 merchants would have lust causo for com- - plaint Yet exactly the same thing has I appened m regard to Kaipara and Christchurch It is not gehera'ly Known that the residents of those counties, bordering tho * great Kaipara estuary (antl which, in round numbers, total some 8000 people), although • virtually connected with tho trado of Auckland, yet derive the bulk of their produce > supplies, and also marlj lines of gencril meri chandise fibm the port of Lyttelton Tho trado is one which has grown up with the !,' kauri timber industry, and is legitimate and t reciprocal Christchurch is the'chief south- ',. cm market for Kaipara's timber, and, at the/ i, > present time, the schoonors Hum, Eh/a > / Firth, Isabella, Defiance, and the bngantiUe I ~ ' Aratapu tndo regulailv between ,tho two ports Month m ind month out, they carry ■ away full cargoes of building material, and hardly, a week passes but one of them is disf i charging food-stuffs at Kaipira Wharf Oc- '* casionally, other coasters sail' in d«eplvladen with floui, oats, chaff, bran, hay, potatoes, hams and bacon, tinned,ireats, and, as before mentioned, othei classes of meichandise ' The cause is not far to seek The average freight from Auckland to Northern Wairoa

>- centres is £I'7s 6d -per tofi Railway i charges alone from Auckland to Holcnsvillc rango frora 8s 8d to £1 os per ton, whilst the full freight from Lvttelton to Wairoi is ' t only 12s 6d per t<?n 'Fiom Dunedin, which ' also, m a measure, participates in the commercial activ it}/-water carnagc is only 103 i per ton Naturallj cicrj merchant mil obstain, his: supplies -by the cheapest-route, and Kaipara disbursers (bv, dealing -,u ith the " soutli instead of-,Auckland) save thousandiiof dj ' pounds per annum < • ( * ' v But tneir sympathies ho with 'their proj vincial capital* and, at hen an intercolonial ' Jmer sails tlienco to 'the chief West amounts, to lOa.-pcr ton), she iiirariajjly .carries a full cargo Of cour e, the trade" earned on withi Auckland is \erj hfgo, and one has only to witness the commodious t. / J steamers which control the service from Helensvil'o hoiihwards, and their ifi££3^TOr;®efl| : tip]ds£to'fliim plies jgo td But the fact remain? that Can- ' i terbury is the chief food' suppler to 8000 y people mthm r IOO miles of Auckland; and, in I - estimating,•■thaiiiSommerpialt.turnxiTgr >■ »latter citj, it is educative u to v note -thai i-t t £50 000 worth of its near country trade is / in tho hand the City of tho'fPlains.