CENTRAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 271, 12 August 1919, Page 5

CENTRAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

MONTHLY MEETING

Messrs. C. Jf. Luke (chairman), P. Castle, J. Bardie Shaw, Francis Holmes, A. L. Hunt, W. Cotton, 11. H. Miller, C. J. Ward, and 11. Tolan were present at tbo meeting of the executivo council of the Central Chamber of Commerce, 'held yesterday afternoon. Tho finance showed .CS9 14s. 2d. at the bank, £1 Gs. for lottings due, and J2225 lbs. 6d. for subscriptions due. Accounts amounting to ,£si 7s. Id. wore passed for payment. Trade Commissioner Wanted. 'J'ho secretary (Mr. A. J. Pctherick) read the draft of a letter proposed to 1)6 forwarded to the Minister of Agriculture, Industries and Commerce urging t'he appointment of a Trade Commissioner, who would inquire into tho chances of trado in North and South America, and in particular tho west coast of South America and the l countries in touch with the Panama Canal. The opening up of the Panama Canal, and the direct, lines trading from New Zealand through the Canal, had changed the trading map of tho world, and it was for them to take advantage of it. Commenting on the letter, Mr. A. L. Hunt said that if it paid private firms to send their own representatives abroad in their own interest surely it would pay tb.e Government to do so. With the coal shortage before them there were ! shipments of ooal coming from Newport News, whioh suggested tho idea of a permanent line of steamers being established. If those steamers did come along they would require cargoes back again. They heard some time asro that there was a market for their dairy produce in Chile and other countries on the west coast of America. Mr. F. Holmes said that he did not quite know whether the idea was ta subsidise steamers to call at Valparaiso and other South American ports or whother it was to establish a direct service He did not think there was any likelihood of there being a line of steamers trading from Newport News with coal, as with the vast oil resources of America the authorities were losing no time in converting their steamers into oil-burning (instead of conl-burniiw) vessels, to be independent of coal. The beauty of oil was that they could oa,rry it whore they now carried salt water, and so economise in space. The engineer of the Auckland Harbour Board proposed to erect big tanks for the reception of oil as fuel, and there was a similar movement in Wellington and Australia, so that vessels trading through Panama would be able to take in oil at tiho Canal, Wellington, and possibly Tahiti, and so bo independent of anything else. There would be more space available, as in addition to the oil ooenpying less space thau ooal. there was tho space now occupied by the quarters of the big crews coal-burning vessels had to oarry. Ihe first thing t<, do, 'however, was to find out what' they could do in the way of having a commissioner appointed i to nnd out whether there was any business to be done on the other side. The letter, modified somewhat from the original draft, is to be forwarded to the Minister. , The ohairman announced that tne members of tho dh amber had been in. vited to attend the ball to be ffivon in honour of the visit of Admiral Jollicoe. Citizens' Railway Committoe. The chairman (Mr. C. M. Luke), in reporting on the activities of tho exocutive, said that the railway trouble had occupied their attention 'during the month. Acting with the older Chamber of Commerce. they had seen Mr. iT\ illy twice, and th.e result had been tho Betting up of a committee to assist in the allocation of goods for transport per rail in fair proportion to tho facilities offers in". Ho had been given to understand that the committee was doing good work. Mr Francis Holmes said that the committee had really been a great; booni to the wTioln community, and it is nan started a little earlier be did not bel'evo the city would have felt the "cut", at nil The committee met every morning, and went into the tonnage of goods offering for certain space. When the goods fell away, and there was. room to spare, thov rang up those people who had restricted goods, and let.them know the position, and so the position jn Wo -, lin»ton had been considerably eased, although the committee had onlv been going since Wednesday last. As an example of what the cqmmittee had done Mr Holmes said that tho railways had formerlv to haul their own coal, but as ihev had not-hud tho coal to haul it was ,requested that tho power so used should .1)6 put into S ood was working out very satisfactorily. Tho oommittee also met at i p.m. daily.