The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1928. THE OUTER PORTS

Southland Times, Issue 20614, 12 October 1928, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1928. THE OUTER PORTS

Napier, seeing the dangers ahead, is taking steps to organize opinion in Hawkes Bay and to combat the proposal to centralize shipping on the main ports. Wellington, of course, dreams of a single port for all overseas boats, and a transhipment service radiating about the coasts from that port, but against that hope is the claim of Auckland which will never tolerate the aggrandisement of Wellington. The proposal to concentrate overseas shipping on the four main ports, however, will receive the support of the four principal centres, and unless the outer provinces are watchful they will find themselves more seriously handicapped than they are at present by their distance from the capital. The production of figures showing how much cheaper it is to load and discharge Homegoing liners if these vessels only go to the main ports are misleading as soon as they

are considered from the viewpoint of the people dependant on what are called the minor ports, because the cost of transhipment has to be loaded on to the outer districts and in addition there is the expense brought about by the advantages enjoyed by the main ports. While the flat rate system is maintained there is some small benefit to off-set the disadvantage of distance, which means that the central main ports are contributing a little to make easier the conditions of the more distant parts of the country on which, no less than on the inner portions, the Dominion’s prosperity depends. Some of our national facilities use the flat rate in order to assist in the development of the back country, and the same policy is sound where our import and export trade is concerned, because undoubtedly the future of New Zealand demands not centralization of facilities, but of advantages as far as possible in order to encourage the settlement and use of the acres situated far away from the favoured cities where population has gathered in large numbers. The development of the Bluff harbour is not designed to enlarge the borough placed on the shores of that haven, but to serve the needs of the province by giving the exporter and the importer the benefits of a good access to the sea. Centralization is a policy which will help to intensify the inequalities which now exist, swelling the size of the towns already over-large, and making harder the lot of the man on the land. Napier’s activities will be supported by all the other ports outside of the four main ones. It is the only way to protect the smaller ports, and save them from drifting back into mere coastal harbours handling transhipments only, in spite of the money they have spent to provide facilities for ocean-going vessels. Selfpreservation demands co-operation, and ii is to be hoped it will not be neglected.