THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY MAY 3, 1883.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6695, 3 May 1883, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY MAY 3, 1883.

We doubt whether, •..in the present positiong.of aaffairs,-either Ministers or the-, public will' greatly lament that there has ; been ;; no response to the invitation for tenders for a direct steam service between ...England and New Zealand; . • .For some years past this subjeet has been energetically pushed forward by representatives of Southern constituencies.The „ Government did not take up the matter till last session, when' they asked Parliament to allow them to expend ,£40,000. as a subsidy, "under certain conditions. It was be l lieyed.'that Ministers ..were not unani- ■ They were all of 5 opinion that the time had come for direct steam service between the colony and England, but some of them thought that, considering the. present position of the great steamship companies, and the movement that was evidently on foot to supply the wants of the colony, we. might advantageously wait for a year. This ■ was not done, however, and Parliament was asked for £40,000, which sum, in its wisdom, it reduced to £20,000. To the contract a number of conditions were attached, and it became a question for intending contractors whether it was worth their while to come under these conditions for the sum offered. Meantime the New Zealand Shipping Company and the Shaw, Saville, Albion Company have started ■ direct" steamers to New. Zealand ; .they, have preferred to carry on their operations untrammelled- by the"'' conditions attached to the subsidy, while the other steamship companies, no doubt for reasons good and sufficient to themselves, have refrained from making any offer. The companies running steamers will carry freight and passengers for the Government at a price. The Goverument import about 12,000 tons of cargo per annum, and during the next few years there will be a considerable number of passengers to be carried. 1

Each o£ the chief ports of the colony will have to stand on its own bottom, and sooner or later one port will be selected in the North Island and one

e . S ° uth f °r the point 0 f arrival an&departure of the steamers, and that one will attain the position to which the largest amount of cargo has £ be brought, and where the vessek meet with the' qukkest despSj with a cargo for the London market In every country the tendency of shipping trade of late years has been concentration at the best ports, and we have had the same influence operating here in the past. The trade of tft seaports in Cook's Strait is mostly carried on by transhipment at Well in' ton. Wool is sent by small steamers from Nelson, Picton, and and put on board London ships at Wellington. This tendency to concentration of trade may be expected greatly to increase. Napier at pros, nt loads several vessels per annum direj for England, and also contribute.?* considerably to the cargoes despatched from Wellington to London. If the ' frozen meat trade is concentrated at Auckland, and a large part of our London commerce is carried on by steamers, we may confidently expect' to attract to this port much of the export trade which is now done at ' Napier, and which, if it did not coiae here, would assuredly go to' Wellington. The West Coast also lies , open to our enterprise, and we must offer to them the most convenient port' ' for the despatch of their produce to ; England, as well as the alternatiye'of " a considerable local market.. -It must also be recollected that the harbour of. iexport will soon become the harbour of -f" import, and that just in proportion as Auckland draws to it the produce of • extended districts, so will it become the place where goods for those districts" will be brought. It will become, and more, an emporium of commerce and trade of all kinds. And it must > , not be forgotten too, that if we had ~;V neglected to establish Auckland as a '' place of export of frozen meat;, the ® port would possibly have gone back rather than - have advanced:",at' all events we should have been, stationary compared with . what is otherwise possible for us. At present we have no Vjreat quantity-of ' produce suitable for the London rnarv'' ket, and if the trade went largely into steam, as it is certain to do, Auckland" ' would simply be not "in it."' Direct steamers would hardly look- at Auck land, because we have no cargo to give ;■ them. They could not afford to he in harbour till they made up a cargo with : a little barb, a little wool, a little gum, I and a few odds and ends. Unless we i can establish this as a place where a ; large quantity of beef and mutton can i always be obtained as outward cargo, , we!, will: take position as a port far " below. Lyttelton and Port Chalmers, 1 and possibly Wellington. But with a ». zealous carrying out of the enterprise - ■ just inaugurated here, Auckland, with v its splendid natural advantages o\er ; "the other ports, must become the first ' : iii the colony. It is for the interest of ■ ;.all that the steam traffic should be at- ; tracted here. Above all duties, it is ;; .incumbent on the Harbour Board to v see that every possible accommodation s h and facility is offered. To attract . ! steamers is to do the trade of the future.