MELBOURNE'S COMPLAINT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17270, 20 September 1919, Page 9

MELBOURNE'S COMPLAINT.

TRADE WITH NEW ZEALAND.

SHIPPING DIVERTED. A. and N.Z. MELBOURNE. Sept. 19. The Melbourne Age, in a special article dealing with the diversion of trade from Melbourne to other ports, especially trade ■with New Zealand, says : "It is a fact that local manufacturers and distributors have lost ground. Particularly is this the ca-se in regard to trade with New Zealand, because Melbourne has been cut off from all direct communication with the Dominion. Nearly all the available steamers now run between Sydney and New Zealand ports. The article points out that the shipping companies do not run steamers from Melbourne to Sydney merely to give crews a change of scene. It must have been made worth their while, and the secret was discovered by business men in Sydney at the expense of those in Melbourne. The position regarding cargo awaiting shipment to New Zealand is very serious. Forty thousand pounds worth of tea alone, purchased by New Zealand '• usiness houses, is held up, with no immediate possibility of shipment. Two steamers leave Melbourne for New Zealand in the next few weeks, but their suace is quite inadequate to meet the requirements. The attitude of companies is that it does not pay to run combined passenger steamers between Melbourne and New Zealand because insufficient jtlssengers are offering, while cargo steamers have mostly been diverted to the coal trade to meet tho Dominion's acute industrial and domestic situation.