PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Thirty-Ninth Year of Publication ESTABLISHED 1875 Manawatu Daily Times WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 1914.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 12784, 6 May 1914, Page 4

PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Thirty-Ninth Year of Publication ESTABLISHED 1875 Manawatu Daily Times WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 1914.

OUR High Commissioner, the Hon. T. Mackenzie, has forwarded us a copy of the Eastern Morning News, published at Hull, containing an interesting article on that port's trade with New Zealand. The paper points out that the Port of Hull as a collecting and distributing centre is in touch with a population of 11,280,000, and it asks: "Why should London be used as the port of supply for this population, when our own port is so much more easily accessible ? . It may not suit the Port of London that Hull should offer better facilities to New Zealand trade than it can bring forward, but that is not our affair. We have to make the best of our chances, and, as the High Commissioner of New Zealand was swift to recognise, we can do New Zealand an excellent turn. We are glad that the investigations of Mr Mackenzie have taken the turn they have. It means much to the Port of Hull that with April there is to be set up between New Zealand and Hull a regular service of steamers. At present, however, the vessels will make a call at London, and then come north, but we feel confident, from evidence to hand, that it will not be long before New Zealand trade will be brought direct to our port. So far as rates are concerned, Hull is able to score. It cannot fail to be an inducement that the rates to London and to Hull should be the same. This will mean a considerable saving in the charges for crosscountry freight. It is hardly likely that traders are going to pay for goods to be carried from London to Hull and all the other places in the North where there is a demand for them from a population of over eleven millions when they can avail themselves of a distributing centre without having to pay extra for it."

IN an article oil the new steamer service the same paper says: —"Hull has exceptional facilities for dealing with frozen meat, it is lifted directly from the ship's hold into the cold store, thus minimising all risk of handling. Of the larger ports only Avonmouth and Manchester can offer similar facilities. A glance at the principal imports from New Zealand show that they are very largely commodities consumed by the rapidly expanding population in the area served by Hull. It is also expected that the sailings will give an impetus to the development which is taking place in fruit growing in the Dominion, and for which HulL?an well provide a market. Seeing that the new arrangement will bring about a substantial reduction in transport charges, it is to be hoped that importers and exporters will co-operate in an endeavour to secure a volume of cargo

sufficient to justify the continued running of the steamers to Hull. The vessels are of a powerful typo, excellently adapted for the trade, and they also have passenger accommodation."

IT is always desirable that there should be healthy rivalry between the various centres of population in all that tends to progress, but it is not so satisfactory when a movement by one is imperilled or retarded by the action of another. There should be emulation, but not jealousy. When Feilding undertook to establish freezing works we venture to say that no one in Palmerston felt the slightest desire to interfere with or embarrass the promoters. It is therefore with some regret that we notice a proposal to establish similar works in Marton, at a time when the Feilding promoters require the co-operation of the whole district. Marton holds a splendid position as the junction of the railway lines, and it is steadily and surely progressing. But it cannot be held that it is so suitable as Feilding for the establishment of freezing works. The advantages of its position are discounted by the lack of an abundant water supply, while if works are established at Kakariki as has been suggested, there will be no gain as compared with their establishment at Feilding. Feilding has become the centre of the fat stock market, and this fact alone gives it a superior claim. It is fairly certain that if freezing works are established in Feilding they will prove beneficial and profitable, but if others are to be established in adjacent towns then the burden terested.