TRADE WITH HULL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10443, 24 April 1912, Page 1

TRADE WITH HULL.

A COMMISSIONER'S VISIT. [From oi;r Correspondent.] >IXVERCARGILL, April 23. -■Mr Austin Wilson, a special trade "commissioner for the Port of Hull, arrived at the Bluff from Melbourne by the Warrimoo on Monday evening. Interviewed to-day, ho said that he was touring Australia and New Zealand with a view to establishing trade between this country and the port of Hull.

"We want a share of vour trade," said Mr' Wilson. " Hull is" the third of the important ports of the United Kingdom, and so far we do not get any of your produco trade. The bulk goes to London, while we serve an area with between ten and twelve million population, and you cannot reach these people so cheaply by way of London. We are getting similar produce to your's from other countries, and there is no reason why you should not have your share. The other countries reach this markot cheaper than you do, and consequently they are increasing their trade at your expense, whereas if vou shipped to Hull you could compete. 5 ' At the present time, he continued, Hull was spending between two and three millions on new deep water docks, cold storage accommodation, and so on, and the new docks would he readv for use next year. They had fivo railway companies running into Hull, and that meant cheap transit to every part of the country. Besides the railways, they had canals and rivers radiating in evorv direction and competing with the raitway companies, which still further reduced the charges. These advantages, they considered, made their port an ideal distributing centre for New Zealand produce. In connection with the frozen meat trade, he said that the cold storage at Hull docks was sufficient to accommodate three hundred thousand carcases of frozen mutton, and, moreover, the stores adjoined the quays. The produco went from the ship to the store with a minimum of handling. Mr Wilson claimed that they could deliver meat from the Hull docks to Smithfield at practically the same cost as it could be done from London.

As regards the trade 'in butter, he said that it cost about a shilling per cwt to jfcfc it to Tooley Street, London, in the first place, on ton of which the brokers charged three per cent, which worked out at about three shillings pec cwt. If it was sold to a North of England buyer, one could reckon on two shillings for rail transit, added to which the middleman made two shillings

per c-wt. All these charges wero put upon it before reaching the retailer. A good deal of this could be saved if the producers shipped to Hull. Thorp wore plenty of firms tha.t were anxious to get the butter trade, and others were eager to get the frozen meat and wool trade. Mr Wilson will leave Invercargill today for Dunedin, atid he will travel throughout the dominion before visiting New South Wales and Queensland on the way back to England.