TRADE WITH GREAT BRITAIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19504, 3 February 1926, Page 10

TRADE WITH GREAT BRITAIN

DIRECT SHIPMENTS DESIRED CHAMBER OF COMMERCE TAKE ACTION. It was decided at Monday night’s meeting of the Chamber of Commerce to get in touch with the Union Steamship Company and suggest that, as the two boats they intend purchasing could work the Wanganui Harbour, that they be put- on a direct service with the port from Great Britain; and if they could arrange this Wanganui merchants would support them. Mr Rankin, who raised the question, said that they were receiving direct shipments from America and Canada, and the New Zealand Shipping Company was chartering a boat to load at St. John this month for Wanganui. The boat was about 4000 or 5000 tons and she would be taking direct cargo for Wanganui at main port rates. This was a good thing for Wanganui, and he did not think any limit was put on the cargo. These services from New York were taking a lot of business away from Great Britain, and England’s excuse was that she could not get the boats. Mr J. A. R. MacGregor agreed that the suggestion was a good one, and further suggested that the London Chamber of Commerce should be written to asking them to submit the matter of direct shipments from Britain to the consideration of the various shipping companies. Such an arrangement as proposed would be a good thing for British trade. It was also resolved that Mr Rankin and the secretary (Mr Hague Smith) confer with a view to supplying the London Chamber of Commerce with particulars concerning the port of Wanganui.