TRADE WITH WAIKATO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19225, 14 January 1926, Page 8

TRADE WITH WAIKATO.

RIVER ROUTE DEVELOPMENT.

ADVANTAGE TO WANGANUI.

The development of the freight trade from Port Waikato up the Waikato River to Hamilton is being taken advantage of to foster trade between Wanganui and the Waikato district. Commenting on the subject recently, Mr. Hague Smith, secretary of tho Wanganui Chamber of Commerce, said it was hoped that the steamer Progress, which was already trading between Wanganui and Port Waikato, would make regular trips, as by this routo Wanganui merchants and business people could send certain classes of goods to Hamilton cheaper than they could be railed from Auckland. The freight from Wanganui to Port Waikato was £1 4s per ton, while the freight from Port Waikato to Hamilton by the river steamers was £1 Ga per ton, a total of £2 10s. Against this the railway freights from Auckland to Hamilton were:—Class A, 63s 6d per ton; class B, 52s 7d; class C, 43s lOd; class D, 34s sd. Despite its much greater distance from Hamilton, this put Wanganui on a better freight basis than Auckland for goods coming under classes A and B, but the northern city still had the advantage for goods classed C and D. Further figures quoted by Mr. Smith showed that water carriage from Wanganui, via Port Waikato, to Hamilton was very much cheaper than railage direct from Wanganui, 265 miles, or than forwarding by steamer to Onehunga and thence using the railway to Hamilton.