WANGANUI'S PROTEST

Hokitika Guardian, 23 September 1930, Page 3

WANGANUI'S PROTEST

AGAINST BOYCOTT OF ITS PO'RT.

(By Telegraph- Per Press Assort* tion.l

WANGANUI, Sept. 22,

A vigorous defence of Wangant'i as a port of direct loading of overseas shjps wvs made to-night at the most representative .public mooting that has been held in the city lor many years. . ■ ThpY Daily Produce Control Board was subjected to criticism in a comprehensive review of the. factors leading up to the trouble which has arisen round the shipment of dairy produce.

Strongly-worded resolutions oi protect Ait the unfair position , the port has been placed in were carried, and those were capped by a motion that the meeting pledge itself to support a petition that is now before Parlianient praying for the abolition ol the Control, Board. showed a-marked. dis'?ng®t&ii .to support centralisation, and the ’port of Wanganui was credited with fighting the battles of all of the coastal ports of the Dominion. The resolutions carried were:—

- (1) That this meeting emphatically protests against the action of tlm Dairy Control Board in entering into ;,atf Agreement* v with the oversea .shipping. cdirip.ahies'"wliereby a num >er of dairy factories within the economic area served by the port of Wanganui are, by the terms of such agreement, precluded from exporting their dairy produce’'through the port of V anganui; it being the' cheapest and nearest port.

(2) That, in view of the fact that £6']Q,()oo of public money has been expended upon the development of tYto port of Wanganui, this meeting strongly resents the present unwarranted attempted by the Dairy Board to interfere witli and destroy the port’s trade. '

■ .(3) .. That, as the oversea shipping companies, (vide the statement made byythe .Acting Chairman of the Dairy Board, Mr ■J. Hine, at Hamilton oh Juft’e 25, T 930, and in his review published in the “N.Z. Exporter” of June 2fi, 1930) insist that it is more economical to pay coastal freights aiid that the elimination of this condition would not reduce the ocean freight paid by the 'industry, this meeting requests that Wanganui be placed in the same position in this respect as the other grading ports. (4) That the Government be urged to take whatever steps are necessary to have the iniquitous agreement set aside, 'and. the conditions which have applied to the port of Wanganui since it, became a grading port in 1911 reverted to.

. (5) That copies of the resolutions be ■ forwarded to the ( Acting-Prime Minister, the Minister of Agriculture/ and Messrs J. T. Hogan, F. S. Langstone, H. G. Dickie, J. A. Nash, ,T. Linklater. and W. J. Poison, M’s. P.. the Chairman of the Dairy Board, and the Manager of each oversea shipping company.