ON THE MAP OF TRANSPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 60, 8 September 1937, Page 10

ON THE MAP OF TRANSPORT

Recent events, such as the discontinuance of the shipping service via Wellington to San Francisco and the establishment of an air-base, at Auckland for Pan-American Airways, described as a foregone conclusion, show a tendency to exclude Wellington from Pacific passenger transport which may well alarm the commercial community in this city. Mr. R. H. Nimmo, who has just returned from Honolulu, the ganglion of Pacific trade, in a statement. to the Chamber of Commerce last night, described the position as so serious that it constituted a definite challenge to Wellington. If Pacific traffic by sea, and, possibly, soon by air, is to pass through one city alone in the Dominion, the effect will be to create in the minds of tourists and travellers the idea that this is the only city that matters, and the interests of the other cities will suffer in consequence. Mr. Nimmo illustrated the point clearly with references to the opinion of merchants in Honolulu and the practice of American lourisls in landing at Auckland

and returning there, after a visit to Rotorua, without ever seeing the Capital City. In the discussion that followed members of the chamber showed themselves alive to the seriousness of the situation in regard both to sea and air transport, and no doubt steps will be taken to bring the matter under the notice of the shipping interests. So far as commercial aviation is concerned the problem of the improvement of tho Rongotai airport is already being investigated by an expert committee. The suitability of Wellington Harbour as a terminal air-base for the proposed trans-Tasman air service is not denied, and the time is certainly opportune, as Mr. A. R. Hislop suggested, for the chamber to renew its representations that Wellington be chosen. Only by such efforts can the city's pre-eminence be maintained on the map of transport.