OUR HIGH COMMISSIONER

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3938, 11 August 1937, Page 12

OUR HIGH COMMISSIONER

VISITS SOUTHAMPTON DOCKS. MR JORDAN GREATLY IMPRESSED. A recent tour of inspection of the Southern Railway’s Docks at Southampton by Mr W. J. Jordan, High Commissioner for New Zealand, may result in an increase in the volume of trade between that Dominion and the port, comments a Londan trade journal just to hand. At the present time, Southampton is a port of call for vessels trading regularly with New Zealand, and the principal imports from that source are mutton and lamb, dairy produce, and fruit. Mr R. P. Biddle (Docks and Marine Manager) presided at the luncheon which followed the tour of inspection, and those supporting him were the Mayor of Southampton (Aiderman H. Chick), Mr H. Parsons, J.P., (Chairman, Southampton Harbour Beard), Mi- H. A. Short (Assistant Docks and Marine Manager), Mr R. M. T. Richards (Development Officer, Southern Railway) and other S. officials and traders. SOUTHAMPTON’ TRADE. Mr Biddle said that 63 per cent, of the cargo handled at Southampton came from the Empire, and 46 per cent, of this country’s ocean passenger traffic passed through the port. Alluding to the port’s contact with New Zealand, Mr Biddle said they were hopeful of increased trade with the Dominion, and expressed the wish that Southampton would share in that country’s prosperity. * Mi- J. Colyer, speaking on behalf of the fruit trade, said they appreciated the many shipments from New

Zealand. “We find,” said Mr Colyer, “that from a distributing point of view Southampton can offer certain outstanding advantages to cargoes received from overseas.” The High Commissioner expressed thanks for the hearty welcome accorded him and said that he was very well satisfied with his visit to the port. He pointed out that although New Zealand was a country of only one and a half million people, yet she was supplying Great Britain to-day with roughly one-third of that country’s imported butter, with more than half of its imported mutton and lamb, and ever 60 per cent of its imported cheese. “EMPIRE GATEWAY.” Mr Jordan referred to the expeditious unloading of South African fruit from the s.s. “Roslin Castle” which he had witnessed earlier in the day. “I congratulate you,” he said, “upon the way you handled that cargo, and I congratulate our sister Dominion upon her foresight in using South - ampton. We are naturally interested in your port as the gateway through which our goods must come, and I shall be pleased to place any suggestions you may offer for the handling of our goods before our trading boards. I trust that this visit may act as another connecting link between our countries and I hope that the trading connections between your port and the distant Dominion of New Zealand may develop.”