WELLINGTON-SYDNEY TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 67, 22 March 1929, Page 10

WELLINGTON-SYDNEY TRADE

(To the Editor.) Sir, —You have a very wide and commendable reputation for being ever watchful of public affairs, and I am sure you would confer a universal favour if you could find space to induce the present Government to take up the matter of a direct weekly service between Wellington and Sydney. Here we are within four days of one of the largest seaport cities in the world with no direct steamer one week in four. Surely trade, passenger traffic, mails, and general convenience warrant the rectifying of this service. The silence of the Chamber of Commerce, Rotarian Clubs, and other public bodies seems to denote either apathy or satisfaction; but as the Wellington steamer followed a few hundred yards behind the Auckland steamer into Sydney Harbour recently, I heard much' criticism of the custom of dispatching steamers from Auckland and Wellington on the same day and leaving each port without a direct intercolonial steamer one week iv four. Wellington is the geographical and commercial centre of New Zealand, and should be entitled to a direct weekly service with the principal seaport and traffic centre of Australia.—l am, etc., AJJEY TAIT. 22nd March. [Inquiries made by "The Post" into the main points raised in the above letter go to show that present intercolonial services are considered to be more than adequate for the trade, taking into account cargo space and passenger accommodation available and the average o£ the business offering per trip.]