FASTER FREIGHT CARRIAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23212, 5 December 1938, Page 10

FASTER FREIGHT CARRIAGE

Attention is drawn in an article published to-day to the increasing speeds being reached and regularly maintained by cargo vessels trading between Britain and New Zealand by the Panama and Cape Horn routes. The new motor-ship Waimarama took only 27 days 8 hours on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Auckland. To hear of such feats on the part of vessels primarily engaged in freight-carriage sends the mind back to stories of the tea clippers in the China trade, and the wool clippers ol the days of sail. The conditions are very different now. The modern motor-ship, instead of racing to be first to port with a seasonal cargo, travels at high speed as part of a scheduled programme, with so many round trips in the year an essential to the ordinary conduct of trade. The clipping of a day or two days off the length of the run is an important achievement. It is the result of greater engineering efficiency and improved hull design. It can thus be depended on in a way remarkable runs in the old days of sail could not be; no matter how fine the design of the clipper, or the seamanship of her master, she was dependent for speed on favourable winds which no man could command. The engineer has enabled his ship to lean far less on the vagaries of the sea. Those vessels which carry perishable cargoes from New s'ealand to the markets of the world are helping to overcome the handicap of distance suffered by this country in comparison with cdmpetitors such as Argentina. The distance cannot be altered, but the time taken to cover it is being reduced. The feats of the cargo liners should help also to turn more attention to the route they follow when the menacing turn of world affairs is causing anxiety about the future of both the Suez and Cape services.