AIR FREIGHTING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22340, 27 May 1947, Page 4

AIR FREIGHTING

COSTS PROHIBITIVE GISBORNE-AUCKLAND RAIL LINK INTEREST The immediate future holds no prospects of air freighting of marketable produce from Gisborne to Auckland because of the cost involved, according to a well-known Auckland businessman in an interview with a Gisborne Herald representative. Present commodities produced in commercial quantities in Gisborne could be grown equally well in Auckland and centres nearer the metropolitan area than Gisborne, be pointed out. A certain amount of air freight had been carried between Auckland and Dunedin at a cost of Is per lb and the rate on similar freight between Gisborne and Auckland would be no less than 3d or 4d per pound, an expense that would have to be met by the grower and one that would make most lines unprofitable. The Aucklander was interested in the efforts being made by the provincial organisation’of Federated Farmers and the Gisborne Trades Council to have the rail link completed to give Gisborne the necessary fail connection with the Auckland market. He was interested, too, in the sympathetic hearing received recently from the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. E. L. Cullen, by a deputation of farmers and trades council delegates. To the best of his knowledge, as a member of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, little was known of the renewed efforts of the Gisborne district to re-establish a link with the northern centre and he was sure that support would be forthcoming from that quarter.