SHIPPING FACILITIES

Southland Times, Issue 18929, 1 May 1923, Page 5

SHIPPING FACILITIES

SOUTH ISLAND’S REQUIREMENTS. COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE. (Special to the Times.) CHRISTCHURCH, April 30. The joint committee set up by the Chamber of Commerce and the Canterbury Progress League to conduct an inquiry into the position of the shipping facilities in the South Island, met this afternoon. The chairman (Mr E. H. Wylee), said the lack of shipping facilities from which the South Island traders were suffering was a burning question which should be pressed forward with all energy. The present meeting was only of a preliminary nature to consider ways and means of ascertaining how to improve the position. Among the questions that would no doubt have to be discussed in the future was the amount of shipping that was necessary to maintain a sufficient service. Before long the matter would be threshed out on the floor of the House of Representatives when the question of renewing the San Francisco and Vancouver mail services again came up. It was manifestly unfair, he said, that the South Island traders should have to pay their full quota of the subsidy while they also had to pay greater freight charges, owing to being in the South Island. The least, that should be done was to put traders in the South Island on a basis of equality with those in the North Island. It would be advisable for the committee to ascertain the exact facilities existing between the two islands, not only in respect of any one line such as fruit, but of the whole of the imports and exports handled. He was afraid that if ships did not call at the South Island, there was a likelihood that trade in exports and imports would die out. In reply to a question, Mr ‘Williams said that the main reason of the great increase in the export trade of the North Island was the advance that had been made in the dairying industry. It was stated, he said, that the shipping trade of Auckland was now larger than that of any other port in the whole Dominion.

Mr Adley said that Auckland had a great advantage over other Dominion ports in reregard to trade with the Islands. It sent to these places large quantities of hardware, tinware, soap and other lines, that could be supplied just as well from the South Island, if it were not for the question of th© extra freight that had to be paid from southern ports.

Mr Williams said that the first step to be taken by the committee was with regard to the quantities of gcods handled at various ports of New Zealand, and then we what proportion of them were affected by the San Francisco and Vancouver services.

A committee was set up to gather information regarding the facilities existing between the two Islands and any other matter that might be considered necessary to assist the committee in its efforts.