THE WAIKATO RIVER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19013, 8 November 1923, Page 11

THE WAIKATO RIVER.

“GREATEST WATERWAY IN DOMINION.” SCHEME OF RIVER DEVELOPMENT PROPOSED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, November 7. Revived interest in trade on the Waikato River was shown at a meeting of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce on Monday, following on the arrival a few days ago of a direct shipment of produce from South Island ports to the port of Waikato. The president, Mr A. j.w. Bisley, said that the Hamilton people had at their very door the greatest waterway in Now Zealand. The development of towns lying along its banks was such that the time was ripe for the immediate utilisation of the river to its maximum capacity as a means of transport. The chamber should devise ways and means of increasing and building up a direct service between Hamilton and all the ports of New Zealand. Mr G. Parr said that the Waikato River was a unique waterway possessing many valuable features, and as a commercial highway it had no rival in New Zealand. From just inside the port of Waikato to the terminal port of Pirongia on the Waipa River- and to the terminal port of Cambridge, including several deep water creeks and the shorts of Lake Waikare and Lake Whangape, it was perfectly reasonable to estimate that there were upwards of 500 miles' of fresh-water frontages available for trading purposes that could be reached from Hamilton by different types of steamers and power launches, which were already successfully trading on the Waikato waterways. The chamber resolved to appoint a committee to prepare a 'scheme of river development as suggested.