The Daily News. SATURDAY, JULY 9. DAWN OF A NEW ERA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 77, 9 July 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JULY 9. DAWN OF A NEW ERA.

That the daw.ll of a new era of vigorous provincial development is ushered in today with the arrival of the New Plymouth Harbor Board's dredge Paritutu only the habitual pessimist can uoubt. Of all the great public works undertaken or in contemplation, in Taranaki, none, excepting the East railway, was ever initiated or conceived that could shoAV greater justification or promise greater potentialities and universal benefits than the deepening of the sheltered harbor at Moturoa to admit of the trading of deep-sea ships. The story of winning, from an open roadstead, of a harbor affording a maximum of shelter and »aJety at New Plymouth lias been one synchronous with the early population oi the province itself. The struggles and embarassments of those days are happily over; merely memories of less affluent times that have been almost forgotten in the brighter vista- opened up with the materialising of the deep-sea harbor dream of the farthest-seeing of our public and commercial men. With prophetic foresight they beheld the day tvhen the natural trade of this province could not be dealt with by coastal shipping except at the cost of an unnecessary tax on the people. Despite the opposition of those who, on the one hand, failed to realise the value of direct trading, and of those on the other who believed the building of a deep-sea harbor impossible except at prohibitive cost, the advocates were not daunted, and all of us know that practically all opposition was eventually swept away before the flood of logical, incontrovertible and patriotic argument adduced in its favor. Succeeding events, notably the negotiating of the critical obstacle of obtaining the necessary money at an unfortunately .inopportune time, are too recent harbor history to need recapitulating here.

* » * # WHAT A MODERN DREDGE MEANS.

Every difficulty was surmounted, and to-day is the Paritutu, the mechanical harbor-maker in which Taranaki has backed its confidence to the extent of £33,000. That this, modern dredger will performer all that is claimed for it we have not the slightest reason for doubting. Under natural conditions far less favorable, harbors by the score have been made possible in all'parts 01 the world by infinitely less capable tools than the builders of this modern vessel have placed at our disposal. That dredging difficulties will present themserves in dealing with the hard strata underlying the waters of the harbor is quite possible, but that the powerful machinery on the Paritutu is not capable of dis!o%in;? much greater obstacles than I anything the floor of this harbor will offer to it, no one who has seen what a modern dredger at work can do for a moment doubts. Within a few days the work of constructing the Taranaki harIbor of the near future, the harbor that within two short years will, we all hope, I rank as a port of call for ocean liners .and compel recognition by keen-witted i shippers as the cheapest and most convenient distributing and transhipping port for the West Coast of New Zealand, will be commenced. Just what is the significance of the first revolution of the Paritutu's buckets, it should not be out of place to consider at this juncture. To the farmers it means the saving of thousands of pounds annually in coastal freights and double handling of their butter and cheese. Shipping companies are not philanthropic institutions, and whatever may be claimed, can no more afford to carry produce to the final port for nothing than can carriers afford to carry the produce from the factories to the railway. The avoidance of double handling, and particularly with regard to .cheese, is an item that will soon be apparent under the conditions to be, compared with those at present obtaining. Similarly with regard to wool, money will be saved on the present transhipping, wharfage and storage charges. That the wool brokers of Taranaki arp capable of handling the wool harvest of the province as economically and satisfactorily as the middlemen of Wellington we are certain, and vf£ hope the day is not far distant when this growing source of wealth will be shipped from its natural outlet in quantities that will justify the erection of the harbor stores and dumping sheds long ago found rv at the principal ports of the Dominion l .

» » t * THE GAIN IN IMPORTS. In the matter of imports, moreover, the gain will be even more appreciable. Every article brought into the province from overseas is burdened to some extent with the charges of transhipment ports and coastal freights. This is a factor that must have had a greater influence against the full development of Xcw Plymouth as the distributing centre and store-house for the province than most people pause to consider. Assuredly it has resulted in practically only necessary stocks of everyday lines being carried by local traders', the larger centres being drawn upon for the great bulk of the requirements of the province. Obviously the charges must be greater than they would be under conditions enabling Taranaki warehouses and importers to land goods direct in bulk, for requirements and 1 for stock, on equal terms with those of their competitors in Wellington, Auckland and elsewhere.

Direct importing will certainly mean an appreciable saving in the annual account* of' housekeepers, and an aggregate saving over the province of a very large sum annually. And while the benefits of direct shipping will b« reflected more m less over the whole area served by the port, nowhere should the new conditions I be so quickly and unmistakably apparent as in New Plymouth. Much depends, of course, on our business acumen, and willingness to embrace and take f*U advantage of the opportunities that will offer themselves. Given that the business community shows a realisation of the future that will be opened up to them as distributo..-. for the province—and beyoud—and take steps, individually and collectively, to push the advantage with energy and competitive insight, the development and growth of the town must immediately be asserted, and will not be arrested. In that growth, too long delayed, everyone must participate, and' no class to a bigger extent than the workers, for whom new avenues of labor will increasingly be opened up.

THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE HARBOR.

Considered in conjunction with the pushing on of bacbbloeks development by roads, but more particularly by the Stratford-Ongarue railway line, the surety of the success of the port is even more apparent. At present, according to the figures presented by the Hon. T. Mackenzie at Te Wera a few days ago, there are under a million acres in cultivation in Taranaki at present, yet the province last year exported butter, cheese, frozen meats and wool to the value of approximately a million and a-half pounds sterling. Wliere the productivity of the soil already in cultivation is so bountiful, What must the future reap from the ten million acres, as yet practically non-pro-ducing, that the Stratford line is to tap ? This port is obviously the only outlet for that rich district far greater in extent than the total area now catered for, and as such will, we are convinced, in a very few- years require extensions to cope with the trade offering such as few have any conception of.

MOTUROA AS A DISTRIBUTING POET. And while the port development we anticipate is founded on a certain belief in the immediate increase in the productive output and requirements of the province, there is another factor that cannot lie overlooked; that is, that Moturoa is destined to be of service, not only to the immediate district, but to New Zealand as a whole. Compared geographically with the relative positions of Wellington and Auckland and. the East Coast ports of the Dominion to Australia, Moturoa occupies a situation of unassailable advantage. Stretching far out across the ocean-divide towards Sydney, reducing by some hours' sail the present routes linking Australia with the Dominion, in these days when time means money, this advantage will one day, not far distant, be turned to profitable account by the commercial communities of the respective countries. This great natural advantage our port possesses cannot, of course, be presented with its full compelling force until railway communication with the centre of the Island and ■With Auckland has been realised. That accomplished, however, and the railways connecting Gisborne and Tauranga with the arterial railway system, the united weight of the Main Trunk and East Coast communities will demand that in the matter of oversea mails they shall be served by the most expeditious route available.

THE GREAT ADVANTAGES. These, then, are but a few of the great advantages that must accrue from the operations of our new dredge. Capable of dredging a harbor to a depth of 40 odd feet at low water, it will serve the requirements of this port to enable accommodation to be provided for the deepest vessels that are likely to reach New Zealand waters for very many years to come. Simultaneously with the development'work of the dredge, there are other costly accommodation facilities to be provided in the shape of wharves, sheds, etc. It only remains for the Board to exercise such supervision over the whole of the great work as will ensure for shipping the maximum of 1 safety and convenience. It should be the aim of the Board, having due regard to its financial stability, to so arrange its charges that the cost of working the port by shipping will compare in the most favorable light with other ports in the Dominion. At present we see Wellington, the most up-to-date port in the Dominion, threatened with the loss of a large portion of its most valuable trade on account of the high charges it has had to impose. This is an object lesson that, we are sure, will not be lost on the Taranaki harbor management. The more favorable the terms we can offer to shipping, the speedier will be the development of the port and the greater will be the gain to the whole province. We trust that the arrival of the Paritutu will awaken the spirit of enterprise that is too dormant in our midst and that from a community that merely exists, we shall give earnest of living with a purpose-THE ADVANCEMENT OF TARANAKI.