DIRECT TRADE.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1924, Page 5

DIRECT TRADE.

SAVING TO TARANAKI. £150,000 IN FIVE Y®AR£ RECENT BIG GROWTH. HARBOUR RATE UNLIKELY. A saving to Taranaki of approximately £1'50,000 has been effected by direct importation through the port of New Plymouth during the past five years, stated the chairman of the New Plymouth Harbour Board (Mr. C. E. Bellringer) yesterday. Mr. Bellringer said that he had gone closely into the trade figures with the secretary (Mt. C. S. Rennell) as a result of an inquiry by Mr. J. S. Gannett as to whether he waa satisfied that the board’s financial proposals with regard to the £600,000 loan could be carried out without the necessity of striking a rate. He had also gone into the details with the finance committee, and he could .now say that, as far as could be humanly foreseen, there was not the slightest chance of a rate being levied. If the progress in the trade in the next fe'w years was any tiling like that of the five years since the £300,000 Joaa was authorised, there wouild be ample revenue from wharfages, etc., to meet all calls for interest and sinking fund. STRIKING EXPANSION. Some illuminating figures regarding the trade of tihe port were given by 'Mr. Bellringer. “In 1019,” he said, “the total overseas imports comprised only 750 tons of manures, but tn the following year there was a considerable advance to 8630 tons, made up of 4257 tons of case oils, 1900 tons of manures, 790 tons of timber and 1683 tons of general cargo. The position was further improved in 1821, when the cargo loaded was 6074 tons of case oils, 5477 tons of manures and 1'578 tons of general cargo, a total of 13,129 tons. In that year there was also landed 19,047 tons of coal, the greater part of which was for the railways. The board did not obtain a great deal of revenue from this source,” said Mr. Bellringer, “but the landing of the coal served a. useful public purpose in that it assisted materially in the distribution of the coal for the use of the railways.” Still further increases in the overseas trade of the port were shown by the chairman when he quoted the figures for the next years. In 1922, he said, the total of the import cargo handled was 19,411 tons, made up of 8714 tons of case oils, 5975 tons of manures, 3697 tens of general cargo and 1025 tons of timber. In addition, 15,926 tuna of coal were landed. The import trade of 1923 was nearly double that of 1922. Case oil imports amounted to 12,031 tens, manures 15,556 tons, general cargo 6406 tons and timber 3523 tons, a total of 37,526 tons, besides which tons of coal were landed, some of it being for private consumers.

IMPORTS GREATER THIS YEAR. “The oversea* trade for the eight months of the current year up to August 31 has already exceeded that of the whole of last year,” the ohalrman continued. “So far 8085 tone of cose oils, 14,752 tons of manures, 861 tons of timber and 13,6.56 tons of general cargo have been landed, the total being 37,554 tons. The striking feature of these figures was that the imports of general cargo were more than double those of last year. Coal landed amounted to 11,831 tons.”

Looking at the trade of the port from the point of view of tihe savings efftvtcd by direct imports through New Plymouth, Mr. -Bellringer said that he Imd calculated that on a very conservative basis, direct shipping meant a saving of £1 per ton on manures, £1 16h on oaae oils and the same on general cargo. In 1919, therefore, there had been a saving of £750 on the manures, while in 1920, the saving by the direct importation of case oils bad been £6500, on manures £l9OO and on the general cargo £2500. It was difficult to ascertain the exact saving on timber, but he thought a very conservative estimate would be £5OO, making a total saving for the year by direct import# of £11,400. REVENUE FOR THE BOARD. In the following year, 1921, Mr. Bellringer continued, the total savings amounted to £17,000, made up of case oil £9OOO, manures £5500 and general cargo £2500, and in 1022 the total jumped to £25,000, case oils being responaible for £13,000, manures £6OOO, general cargo for £5500 and timber for £5OO. No less than £46,000 had been isaved last year, the details being case odd# £lB,OOO, manures £15,500, general cargo £9500 and timber £3OO. iFor the eight months of the year the saving had been £47,500, made up by ease oils cargo £20,000 and timber £5OO. “Thus,” Mr. Bellringer said, “in the £12,000, manures £15,000, general five years since the £3OO/X)0 waa authorised the port hua been responsible for a saving of about £150,000, or half of the loan, and there is no doubt that had we had the wharfage accommodation for more steamers the saving would liave been greater. Thia year, also, we had the railway strike to contend with, and we know that ships which were to have come here were diverted. Furthermore, we have been able to effect not only thia saving to the community, but we have been able to find, the money to meet the interest and sinking fund charges on the loan out of the past •revenue and have not had to strike a rate,” Mr. E. Maxwell: The savings last year were greater than the total charges to the board under the loan. The chairman: In addition to that we have been able to spend fl. good deal of our revenue on the port. Members expressed great gratification with the position as disclosed by the chairman, who stated that he was having the information compiled in more detailed form for distribution to them.