WANGANUI AS A PORT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 20085, 20 May 1914, Page 3

WANGANUI AS A PORT.

ITS UTILITY TO WEST COAST

PRODUCERS

RECOGNISED DOWN THE LINE

(From Our Travelling Reporter.) MARTON, May 10.

That .the farmers of the Main Trunk district regard Wanganui as the natural port for tho coast is unauestionable, and there is not the slightest shadow cf doubt that when the harbour scheme is so far advanced as to permit Home liners to come in and b?rth safely while the holds are filled up with the district's farm produce, trade and traffic 'will be diverted from Wellington to Wanganui. This was admitted at a meeting of farmers held at Marton this after-i-con to consider proposals submitted by the Wellington Meat Expert Co.. in connection with the erection of freezing works at or near Morton.

Mr. 11. T. Batley. a well known sheei> farmer of Moawhango, pointed out that, so far as Taihape was concerned, wcrks were an essential owing to the trucking difficulty. Trucks could not be obtained at the right time-, find then when trucks were available the freezing works were full, and could not handle 'the stock. He had no desire to throwcold water on the Marton proposal, biithe could not see how the erection of works -at Marton cr Kakariki was go-, ing to improve mat-tens, for whether tho .sheep came from up or down the line, they would have to be railed. Then there was the subsequent handling oi~ the carcases when being sent away. When the sheep were, in the first instance, sent away, it mattered little whether they went to. Marton, or a, further distance, and therefore, in his opinion, Wanganui provided the solution cf the problem. The success of the Wanganui .harbour scheme was assured, and in .a very little time they would have a good harbour. Under the condition*, the farmers on this coast would never dream of sending their stuff through to Wellington when they had such a good and cheap port at their own doors. The trucking of the sheep alive, and the -subsequent-, handling, followed by th© railing of the frozen carcases to the shipping port, seemed to him a hip- bar to financial success. Wanganui offered the key to the position. The Mayer: T.bere would ,be nothing to stop the Meat Export Co. using Wanganui as their port, and they no doubt would do so in the interests of the concern. "