DOMINION SHIPPING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18208, 2 October 1933, Page 9

DOMINION SHIPPING

PORT COMPARISONS WELLINGTON TONNAGE LEADS The total inward shipping for New Zealand for 1932 was 5741 vessels, of a net tonnage of 2,347,656. The corresponding figures for 1931 were 564 vessels, of a net tonnage of 2,155,920. These figures relate to the first port of call only, says the Wellington Post. Tlie first ports of arrival lor 1932 were as follows; —Auckland, 298 vessels, of a net tonnage of 1,325,019; Wellington, 137, 619,919; Bluff," 43, 103,377; Lyttelton, 31, 96,108; Dunedin, 13, 41,996. It will be seen that Auckland is more favored in being the first port of call than Wellington. This is a matter which has already been taken up by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, which is fully alive to tlie value of the transhipment trade which follows a first port of call. An effort is being made to arrange a diversion, or some rearrangement of first ports of call, in order that Wellington may secure a larger proportion of first-call vessels. During 1932 Wellington recorded the greatest tonnage of any New Zealand port’s total arrivals, 3,448,286. Auckland followed with 2,424,186, the tonnage of these two ports representing 45 per cent, of the total for New Zealand. Next in order were Lyttelton 1,856,568, Dunedin 868,251, Napier 549,419, Timaru 489,895, Bluff 462,531, New Plymouth 410,837, Nelson 303,218, and Gisborne 298,115. The figures lor Wellington and Lyttelton were swelled by the daily passenger services between those two ports. Owing to the large number of small coastal vessels engaged in the Auckland trade, Auckland heads the 1932 arrivals in point of numbers, being as high as 5640. compared with 2863 for Wellington.