LINK WITH EAST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22724, 10 May 1937, Page 11

LINK WITH EAST

NEW STEAMER SERVICE

PASSENGERS AND CARGO MAETSUYCKER DUE TO-DAY The motor-ship Maftsuycker, which is inaugurating the South Pacific passenger and cargo service of the Dutch Royal Packet Navigation Company, and linking New Zealand with the -Dutch East Indies, is due hero at seven o'clock this morning. As her cargo includes a quantity of sugar, she will berth at Chelsea to discharge, and her passengers, live of whom are landing at Auckland, will be taken off' in the stream. The Maetsuycker, which is beginning a direct monthly service, left Saigon, French Indo-China, on April 10, and called at Singapore and other island ports. She will go from here to Wellington and Sydney. The hope that New Zealand exporters would take every advantage of the direct shipping service to the Dutch East Indies and British Malaya was expressed by Mr. L. J. Schmidt, secretary of the Department of Industries and Commerce, in a letter received by the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce.

"As you are doubtless aware," the letter stated, "the Dutch Royal Packet Navigation. Company is opening a direct service between New Zealand and the Netherlands East Indies and British Malaya. In the past considerable difficulty has obtained in the expansion of our market in the East, through lack of direct shipping; but now it is hoped that New Zealand exporters will take every advantage of the opportunities for expanding the small trade with the territories now being opened up." Mr. Schmidt added that anything which the chamber could do to open up business with British Malaya, the Indies, and adjacent countries would lead to a marked improvement in the trade position of these countries in relation to New Zealand.