PORT OF NEW PLYMOUTH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 60, 1 September 1911, Page 3

PORT OF NEW PLYMOUTH

I "** ITS JMMIONWE PROSPECTS. AS OTHERS SEE US. (Continued.) Continuing its article on the New Plymouth harbor and its possibilities, of •which we published a portion yesterday, the New Zealand Skipping and Commerce Annual Review, says:— COASTAL . FEEDERS. In addition to the very large trade carried to and fro from the port of Mew Plymouth by the railways, an important addition to the trade will be contributed by means of coastal steamers. Northwards are the .Mokau Ri»er and the Kawhia and Kaglan harbors, besides several smaller rivers to which small craft have acre—. To the south arc Opnnake and Pa tea. The Mokuu River drain* a large area of good country now being cut up and improved for small settlement. It is 40 miles from New Plymouth, and 1 is navigable by steamers of 120 toiia gross, drawing six or seven feet of water, for a distance of '23 miles, where there is an established coal mine, with an already considerable output, capable of large development. There are other outcrops of coal on or near the river bank, besides which there are large quantities of timber to be milled, as well as deposits of valuable limestone to be Worked, all of which will furnish trade for shipping. In addition the river will become the main, highway for settlement, and carry great quantities of produce for transhipment into ocean liners at New Plymouth. Recently blocks of lan 4 aggregating something like 90,000 acres have been acquired -for settlement, and are now in process of being roaded and improved. In a few years large quantities of butter, cheese, wool, meat, and other produce will come down the river and find its way to New Plymouth for shipment to the markets of the world.

Kanhia Harbor is 7- miles and Raglan Harbor H2 miles from New Plymouth, and both will serve very large areas of bind now i>eing developed, the produce of which will come to New Plymouth by coastal steamers for transhipment in,to ocean liners. The trade of these small ports, at present not very extensive, is now carried on with Auckland, by way of the Manukau, but as this entails transhipment at Onehunga, and railage between there and Auckland, it is obvious that a deep water harbor at New Plymouth must attract the trade.

It will thus be seen that New Plymouth is particularly favorably situated to serve and attract the whole of a vast area of country, some of it very ! rich, the equal to which for productiveness cannot be found elsewhere in the Dominion. The trade is even now ex ; tensive enough to warrant frequent and regular calls of ocean liners, and it is growing steadily and will continue to expand even more rapidly in the future. Tho coal fields, at present scarcely touched, are of very great extent, and there is good reason to believe that beneath the brown coal outcropping in many parts of the north-eastern portion of the district will be found bituminous coal.

THE PORT'S CENTRAL POSITION*. A glance at the map will show how admirably situated New Plymouth is to serve as one of the loading ports of Now Zealand. Ongarue, the point of junction of tile Stratford line, now being constructed, with the North Island Main Trunk railway, is 1-GO miles from Auckland and about 133 miles from New Plymouth, while Ohak une, which is 202 miles from Wellington by rail, will be little more than half that distance by rail and road from .Ww Plymouth when the roads proposed arc completed. Thus it will be seen thab practically the whole area comprised in the map will be served by the port of New Plymouth by means of railways and roads. By sea, the districts surrounding the ' Raglan and Knwhin harbors, and in the watershed of the JTokau river, will find New Plymouth their most convenient deep-water port, while the river ports of the West Coast of the South Island, which, by reason of the bars, cannot accommodate large ocean liners, mny be more conveniently served by New Plymouth than by Wellington. Again, 110 port is the best situated as the first and last port of evil for the steamers trading, between Sydney and Wellington. New Plymouth is 98 miies nearer than Wellington to Sydney, and has thin additional advantage, that between Sydney Heads and the wharf at New Plymouth is an absolutely straight line a>v! dear course, free from obstruction or deviation of any kind, and steamers may travel at full speed, practically without change of direction, until within sight of the wharf. It may be predicted with every confidence that in the near future the mails and passengers to and from Sydney will be embarked and disembarked at New Plymouth, which is in a particularly central position from the point of view of distribution and assembling. The fact that immense sums of money have been and are still being spent by shipping and railway companies in England to provide port* to hind passengers and mails by Atlantic liners at points which will save a few hours favors the belief that the advantage New Plymouth offers to shorten the distance between Australia and New Zealajid will before long be made use of.

ixdcstries of the ursTRTCT. Tlw list of export's show* flint the district is essentially one- of grazing and dairying. Tin;re arc somi' 200 dairy factories and creameries scattered over the district, besides as many more registered private dairies am! many smaller ones ! not registered, of which no record is obtainable. At Moturoa. close to the harbor, there is a large freezilig works, where butter and cheese for export are graded and prepared for shipment. Patea has similar works, where the produce of the southern part of the district is dealt with. At Waitara (here are large meat-freezing works. owned by Messrs. llorthwick and Sons. Ltd., with a storage eapaei tv of 40.000 carcases of mutton, and able to freeze 2000 sheep per day. In connection with the works there is also an extensive meat preserving establishment. At Patea there are smaller meat freezing and preserving works, ami there is already a movement to establish a third work's to assist in handling trie rapidly increasing qua ntity of stock for export. Wool, hides, skins, tallow, pelt-, oleo. horns, runners, and other minor products of the grazing indnstrv already make up very respectable ligures. which are bound to increase rapidly in the immediate. future. There are also several bacon factories in the district. As already stated, there is but one small coal mine 'in active operation (on the Mokmt river), but a. glance at the map will show that coal underlies a very large area of the northern part of the province, and it i- therefore likely to become an import-nit industry, especially when the railway now being eon- 1 struel'd from Stratford to Ongarue reaches the country where coal outcrop .. The limber which covered practically the whole proviir/n U being stcadilv worker] out. The j'l-ikan district will yield a considerable ifiuntitv for a few years, but it will not be very long before a large demand arism for imported timber. At New Plymouth. Inglewood,

(Stratford, Eltham, and liawera there are sash and door factories and butter ( box factories, where a large quantity (of timber is annually used up, white other manufacturing industries include coach factories, boot factories, tanneries and feHmongcries, iron foundries, etc. / PROSPECTIVE INDUSTRIES. For some years past prospecting for petroleum has been carried on more or less vigorously in the vicinity of New Plymouth, with the {result that payable 1 oil has been obtained in two wells at Moturoa, owned by the Taranaki Petroleum Company. At the present time the company's whole undertaking, including four wells, two of which are yielding oil, one at the rate of about 100 barrels a week, which has Ix'cn steadily maintained for nearly eighteen months, and boring rights over a large area of country believed to be oil-bearing, is undef offer to an influential and wealthy London company. It is confidently expected that in a very few weeks the negotiations will be completed, and tlnijj, before the end of the year Mr. J. D. Henry, the well-known petroleum expert, who has already visited the district, will return to organise operations upon a very much more extensive scale than has hitherto been attempted. The Taranaki Oil and Freehold Company, the Inglcwood Oil and Prospecting Company, and the Standard Oil Company of New Zealand have done more or less prospecting, besides which there are other parties' holding boring rights over a large area of country nil the district served by the harbor. If the operations result in the development of an extensive oil field the . port of New Plymouth will occupy a unique position in the Southern Pacific, for it will become a fuelling depot for Imperial Navy vessels as well as for the mercantile marine using oil fuel. When Mi - . J. D. Henry came to New Plymouth in January last the first thing that struck him was the immense advantage the possession of a port right alongside the producing wells gave. His subsequent inspection of the district led him to say publicly that "the day would come, probably in as short a period as six years, when the value of New Zealand's oil production would be equal to that of gold." He further expressed his conviction, .iter a close study of the question. that there is a great oil field here j in Taranaki; spreading over a much larger area than is generally thought, and that the deposits very probably underlie the town of New Plymouth itself. That he was in earnest is evident from the fact that since his return to London he has given an undertaking that if the negotiations between his principals and the Taranaki Petroleum Company are completed he will devote his whole time and energies to the development of the resources of whose existence he is so confident.

[The successful completion of the negotiations for the sale of the Tnrnnaki Petroleum Company is announced in this issue.—Kd. T.D.N".] In addition to this prospective—and practically certain —oil industry, there is a probability of the establishment in the near future of works at Moturoa for utilising tb« ironsand which is found in illimitable quantities for many miles along the beach. An influential syndicate has acquired a lease of the fayeshore from the Now Ply moil tit Harbor Board and has paid a deposit of £2OOO as an earnest of its intention to commence the erection of works within a few months.

Taking only Well established facts like the dairy industry into consideration there is every reason for the greatest confidence in the future of the port of New Plymouth. The improvement scheme is already so far advanced as to remove any possible doubt that within two years the largest steamers trading to New Zealand will he able to berth comfortably at the wharf, and there is room also for whatever expansion the future in the distance may make necessary. The existing industries of the district will provide cargoes for ocean liners at frequent intervals, while the facilities of ingress and egress are so great that the port must command the trade of an enormous extent of rich country. When to these considerations are added the prospects of the petroleum and iron industries it is not taking too optimistic a view to predict that in a few years New Plymouth will become one of the most- important ports of New Zealand. - i- (Fini6.)