SEA-BORNE TRADE OF WANGANUI.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 858, 2 July 1910, Page 5

SEA-BORNE TRADE OF WANGANUI.

TRANSHIPMENT TROUBLE. (By TeleeraDh-Pruss Association.! Wanganui, July 1. The chairman of the Wellington Harbour Board's defence of the seriously-increased transhipment rates is looked upon here as very lame; in fact, is ridiculed. The contention that Wellington provides compensating advantages for the excessive impost of 45., and, in some cases, 4s. 6d. per ton, on leading business men, lias its existence in imagination only. With the improved harbour entrance facilities at Wanganui, now capable of admitting coastal vessels carrying up to 1000 tons of cargo, it is contended that the freightage from Lyttelton will shortly be arranged at the same rates as now prevail from Wellington, thus effecting a saving of 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. per ton in transhipment charges.

A new steam shipping company is being floated for the Dunedin, Oamaru, Timaru, Lyttelton, and Wanganui trade, with a view to ensuring a more frequent service with those ports than now obtains. Many thousands of tons of inward Home cargo will then be transhipped at Lyttelton for Cook Strait ports, including Wanganui, and much Homeward cargo, such as butter, wool, tallow, etc., will go to Lyttelton for Homeward-bound vessels.

"It is felt," said one of Wanganui's largest shippers, "that the Wellington Board have more than pressed on the, last'straw."