OUR OCEAN GOING TRADE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 9682, 26 April 1893, Page 2

OUR OCEAN GOING TRADE.

FEEDING A CENTRAL PORT. Seeing the extent to which settlement is extending in a Bemi circle of which New Plymouth may be considered the centro of tlie straight ed^o as also tho ocean port, the question naturally irises if it is not time a new departure waa struck in respect to its ocean-going trade, Thia has been forcibly suggested by lemarks made by your special correspondent in his account of Awakino «md northward, and the fact J that your recognised contributors are now located noith and south to the full extent of that seaboard of which New Plymouth is the centre, as wo'l as around and filling in the intervening country up to and beyond the outer limit of this supposed inland semi-circle. You may also boast travel • ling recorders by sea and land ia the Home going visitors who, still adventurous us in younger days, now in older age having moans at disposal, must needs stretch out for a look at the old country. The former " o»6is " isolation of Turanaki as a whole, to say nothing of the once very circum scribed area of t.e district, ia becoming but a memory of the eventful past, for travelling in any direction landward though rough in some directions yet, is at any rate "lree. ' There is no (; aukati " to debar and no native enetni. 8 to fear. This Awikino settlement and district completes the se.u;eneirclement of busy life round about youi chief town acid port Her ,it would app >ar,ii patch of lan i piolifio in future production of sheep and liords, and probablj drying and agricultural enterprise will, their rebpectivo varying adjuncts, has leer thrown as it wore into the embraces oi Taianiki junior— that is the riti -g genera tiou— heuUed off in cas'.-a by their stil o lergetic progenitor. The old folks, whoai pioneers had to spend sa much of the.r earh colonial days ia lighting for the home, on which thsir numerous families hav< since been leared— inured thereby to hard ships by the advonturea forced upon then in the struggle for life as well as for bread and butter, or, in extremity, its substitute fcinroot — tho old folks have evidently tiiiismitt d to their olTspring thosi qualities necessary to the natural equip meat of outlying settlers. For tin children of such parentage, exertion, will a spice of adventure in it, is a requite uient of their nature. Without somi stimulus to excitement and activity thoj stagnate. It cannot bo counted a boast t< cay, give but fair scope to a w.der field fo; Taranaki boys than the limited parenta area Ikb hitherto afforded, and thoso boyi distinguish themselves. Examples are toe numerous to necessitate present recapitula tion. In any and every sphere of lift tho away-from li ,mo Tarana*i boy expandi and reH'Cts credit on his up -bringing am Ire province. Awakino is but one among numeroui examples of tho aiaptabli j capability of the Taranaki boy. Busl whacking is none too low from which ti make a start for future competency Statesmanship is none too high for aim an< endeavour. Coming back now to the busl and tho potato patch, does not this surround ing abounding energy and tho consequen increase in exports and imports warrant new departure in ocean trausir, and espe cially for the niore perishable products i which Taranaki leads the colony. You » frequently show by population and stocl returns, and export and import statistics how rapidly tho eurroundiog country is ii these respects bounding ahead, that then is no occasion to enumerate. It is also to' well known ho* far short of expeoiatioi various efforts to meet this trado expan sion have been frustrated, though, in spit of all, beneficial advancement has beei made. For its more ambitious schema o ocean-going steamship service and " lmrbo of refuge," on which plea former Govern uients forced the initial stages of tin larger undertaking and later Government by faddy lund legislation, broke down tin | financial foundation, tho provinco is in m way to blame; and it has been powerles to obtain an efficient substitute for larg< harbor accommodation from the railwa; controllers. The sea outlet must then be mad' as worKable as possible. Neither Aucfelanc nor Wellington ha over been other thai vigorous enemies to Taranaki ilarboi Both have dreaded the development of i possible lival, and both have united t crush and still combine against it. Tara naki cannot do without one or other o these important shipping ports. It is jus possible, and indeed very probable, seeinj that both have proved natural enemies t< New Plymouth harbor, that Taranaki ha clung with too great steadfastness t< Auckland as a trading centro. To ge such stuff away as Taranaki chiefly pio dnces is inconvenient, to say the least, b; way of Onehunga and Auckland. Then arc too many handlings and too mud rikk. Neither Auckland nor Wellingtoi ha^ stepped forward to help, and, witl tilt the pleading aud great oltort nude b; exporters, no properly satisfactory arrange" ments have so fur been undo with tin railway authorities. Timo thon to irj somo other plan. It may be a step dowi from the long hoped for but now ulmosi despaired of ocean going service. Yet ii is more than probable it will answer re quirements The suggestion is to cut the painter sombwhht as regards Auckland and work more towards Wellington foi shipping purposes. How that may be done and to what advantage, may be in furred from what has been done in tho western dairying district of Victoiia, of whiuli Wurrnumbool ia the principal shipping pjrt A small locally owned sloamei tr; ding to Melbourne has been fitted uj with a cool chambor to hold 1,000 boxec of tho 561bs eize. This method of carrying butter from the factory-port to the port of shipment has proved so eminently successful that the Victorian Dairy Expeit has sanctioned direct transfer from the local steamer to tho Homo ocoan-goiug sleamor. Whon butter is done with cheete is carried, and when neither butter noi cliecfo is in soason the chamber is filled with fruit and gar en products for the Melbourne market. So that, in all season?, this coal storage chamber has its uses, and in uo way lessens tho general cargo carrying capacity of the boat. This cool chamber has also effjetively settled the vexod question of transit by rail, and has made butter exporters quite independent of the railway, which alto connotti Warrnambool with Melbourne in like manner as there is rail from New Plymouth to Wellington. The distance, too, by sett is 160 miles, while it is not much further from New Plymouth to Wellington. Ia many respects Watrnambjol an.l New Plymouth are similar. They aro respectively the chief maiket towns of rich dairying districts, and have had similar exporiencoa aa to marketing produce Both towns aro on somewhat hilly ground, with equally picturesque surroundings, noted also for well-kept gardens Both also are open roadsteads, and have had breakwaters of a similar nature, with jutting wooden wharves, constructed, tho breakwater at Warrnambool having, so far, proved the greater success by stricter adherence to Sir John Coode'B instructions The success achieved hy Warrnambool in the maiket ing of its lust season's butter is within easy reach of Taranaki, as in both cases tho natural and artificial conditions are bo exactly alike, with similar griovuncoi. It but requires that Tarannki shall adopt a similar method of transport. Tarauaki would, however, havo aavnntago in the fact that a similar boat bo fitted could call at intervals at other potts, including, (torhaps, in the not dutaut future, oven Awakino. J . R. Pttteu