The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 1923. PRODUCE MARKETS.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1372, 27 March 1923, Page 4

The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 1923. PRODUCE MARKETS.

IT is distinctly flattering to the producer of New Zealand that there should be so much competition for his favours as there is at the present, time on the part of the great port, authorities of the .Mother Country. A few weeks ago the Dominion was visited by a representative of the Port of London Authority who desired to impress us with a sense of tihe great facilities that exist in London for the distribution of produce throughout the United Kingdom. Not many days ago a representative of the Manchester Ship Canal was in our midst pointing out to us the advantages which the shippers of produce direct to Manchester have in commanding an enormous industrial market that is very easily accessible from that, port; and Colonel Hawkins, representing the Mersey Docks and Harbour Hoard, is in the South Island interviewing shippers ami exporters, and advancing the claims of Liverpool as a port with exceptional provision for docking, storage, and distribution. The producers of New Zealand would he blind to their own interests if thev did not

weigh very carefully the arguments which are being preesntecl to them in support of the diversion of the Wesl of England ports of a great portion of their export trade thannow goes there. It is (dear that these ports are more closely in touch than London is with millions of a population that, is already a. consumed- of New Zealand meat and of what passes for New Zealand butter. If the market in the industrial centres of the northern counties and the Midlands can be developed through the institution of more frequent sdirect shipments to port other than London that is a consideration which is not to he ignored. If. further .the cost, of handling and the cost of transport to those swarming populations can be reduced by shipping to ports other than London, and if. as a consequence, the return to the producers can be increased, that, is a consideration, again, which is not to be ignored. We have no doubt thai claims of their several ports to consideration will have been laid by the emissaries of the British port authorities before the organisations which control the arrangements for the shipment of produce from New Zealand. and ii is impossible to suppose thai in the long run the outcome wil [not be to the benefit, of the producers. It is. indeed, a most healthy sign thai theer should be the competition which has sprung up for the trade from the Dominion, for the effect of it should necessarily be 1.0 protect the producers to a greater extent than in the past against the danger of exploitation at I'he other end of he world. !