COLONIAL SHIPPING.

Evening Star, Issue 3690, 19 December 1874, Page 1 (Supplement)

COLONIAL SHIPPING.

Th« “ Register i f Australian and New Zealand Shipping” contains a table which the number and tonnage of the vessels reai-tired m each port of rhe Australasian Co onies. ew South Wales, the Colony in th.-se seas, heads the list with 575 vessels, representing a tonnage of 74,3t»7 tons. New Zealand stands next in pint of number or ve-seis, viz 421, of 32,/07 tons. "Victoriahas 362 vessels, which represent a tonnage of 63 645 tons nearl / oouble the carrying capacity of New Zealand, and nearly equal to that . f New South Wales. The other Colonies follow in the order named : South Ans ralia, 185 vessels, 23,711) tons ; Tasmania, 178 vessels, 17.509 tons; Western Uistralia, 74 vessels, 4 235 tons; and Queensland, 67 vessels, 3,399 tons.

The . Daily Tolesraph,’ in commenting on thi sii statistics, alludes to the causes which have inductd ew South Wales and New Zealand y to employ vessels of small linage as compared with the larger class of vessels preferred by Victoria. The atontion o: the neighboring Colonies seems to hare been directed by these statist cs to the I’acific trade, and the prospects of New Zealand are thus alluded to It must be allowed that their trade affords the nucleus of what will probably one day expand into an important feature of traffic in the >outh Seas hat the ion of‘at leas'; a considerable portion of his trade is already contemplated by our neighbors may be inferred from the prompt manner in which harbor improvement is being initiated, and the active steps taken to develop those p cuiiar resources which are likely to make au outside trade prod able. With such exports as timber, ceal, aud iron, New Zealand must either become a formidable rival in the southern shipping trade or a highly advantageous connection. To ensure the latter, ami thu< a void the former, Victoria must be m a position t» purchase and utilise the raw products of New Zealand, which, in return, will afford an extended market for those manufactures now being so rapidly developed here, and which ere long must ba produced m far l.rger quantities than can be locally consumed.