The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1916. A NEW WOOL-GRADING PORT.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 7 December 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1916. A NEW WOOL-GRADING PORT.

(With which is incorporated The Taihapo Post and Waimarino News).

The port of Wanganui appears to have moved up another important rung on the ladder to material progress and usefulness. At a recent meeting it was reported that a distinct Ministerial promise had been given that Wanganui should be made a wool-grading port under the new arrangements for shipping wool to England. All other things being equal, making the port a wool-grading centre is going to confer wide-reaching advantages and conveniences; but it must be very evident to those who have seen and realised the importance of a complete plant necessary for effectively handling wool for oversea transport that much has to be done to make Wanganui right up to date in this respect. That, however, need not be taken into account, as the people of Wanganui, having once got the place made a grading port, will see to it that facilities are forthcoming to make, the presence of graders, a necessity now that they are to bo initially installed. Although there may be some wool-buying firms whose headquarters are in Wellington, where they have all the facilities and accessories for handling avool for shipment, who will continue to rail wool on as before, it cannot continue for very long if Wanganui appraises what it has gained at approximately its true worth. If they do so continue they cannot with honesty load the wool with the extra railage cost, and there may arise some question about when such railed-on wool is to be paid for. Wanganui has undoubtedly the ball at its feet, and if it allows its opportunity to slip, well, the back country will lose eenfidenee in the men who pro- ' fess to be working out the port's destiny. The saving in railage on wool by 1 having it graded at .Wanganui may not ' at first sight seem of very great sig- ' nificance, but if it, is only the merest

fraction of a penny per pound the gain to wool-growers in this district will be Tery considerable. Last year the district of Taihape sent away nearly half-a-million's worth of wool, and ever so small a fraction of a penny in saved freight on that sum must mean a very large amount to be retained by the growers. In fact, if Wanganui port is equipped with storage and wool-dumping facilities, and large ocean boats can be loaded from the wharf, then a grading port will be to our wool what freezing works are to our meat. A good deal of what Wanganui ' has done towards progress seems to have bee n characterised with a parochialism that has had no interest to those in the town's hinterland. Now, however, there has come the opportunity to draw towards it a fleece of prosperity that will add very much to its commercial health and wealth. Where the wool goes, the owners follow, and as a spending power they are a consideration. If Wanganui will make a success of wool shipping, then

meat trains will soon be arriving at Wanganui that now steam into Wellington. The possibilities and probabilities are distinctly worth while to Wanganui and they very much concern us. The more valuable Wangnanui becomes as a port, when once it is fairly launched as such, the more valuable must land and property become throughout the whole district the port will serve. No man will continue to send wool where high freights are involved for long. There may be some prejudice and some vested interest to wear down, but, all other things being equal, the extra railage to Wellington must operate in Wanganui's favour. Whatever is saved in freight is an addition to the price the grower will receive, and no woolbuyer, however much he may desire to continue sending aycol on long and high freightage, can hope to make the grower pay the difference, and so soon as that difference comes out of his own pocket then his anxiety will be to avoid the loss. There seems to have

been a lurking" suspicion in Wanganui that opposition was to be.sought in Taihape to that town's progress. Wanganui people are not quite sure of us; they seem to imagine there exists some tacit dislike; a something implied and not expressed. We seem to be suspected of some ulterior reason for opposing-what is for Wanganui's advantage. This view has struck definitely from the doubt one could easily read between the lines in any comment upon this district's attitude. It should be obvious that whatever operates towards making Wanganui a thoroughly equipped port should have ihe full support of all those who give any thought at all to the subject. Just as the advancement of Taihape in the establishment of all modern necessaries for carrying the growing needs of a large producing centre adds to the value of land and stock in its surrounding territory, so must the perfection ,of Wanganui as a port add to the value of all land and produce in the territory which it must act as the outlet for. If we can place wool on the ship for four pounds a ton, and we are satisfied there is going to be no bitch or breakdown, we are not so wanting in the business instinct as to go on paying five pounds per ton. We may be opposed to some Wanagnui attitudes, and we undoubtedly are, and when the opportunity arrives we shall fight them out. but they have no relation whatever to commercial progress. The advancement of the port towards being all that it should be, is the advancement of the whole territory the port can serve at a saving to those who use it, and if there are some who do not at present realise the fact, the day is not far distant when they will.