TRADE WITH CANADA.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1916, Page 7

TRADE WITH CANADA.

t * ■EASTERN PORTS SERVICE. CONTINUANCE RECOMMENDED. TEMPORARY RENEWAU In view of the extent of the trade which has been built up between New Zealand and the eastern ports of Canada during the currency of the contract entered into in 1010 between the Canadian Government and the New Zealand Shipping Company, n great deal of interest is felt in Auckland business circles in the question whether the arrangement is to be renewed (states the Herald). The present position is that the. contract expired last month, but according to a cable advice recently received by Mr. W. A. Beddoe, Canadian Trade Commissioner, it has been definitely extended for an additional .two months. The vessels to be placed on the berth for March and April are the Whakatane and the Pakeha. The Matatua, which was blown up at St. Johns (New Brunswick) by what is supposed to have been an explosion of carbide fumes, was the last vessel under the main contract, and though she was originally time-tabled for February, her sailing date was ex 1 - tended into March. Mr. Beddoe, in his communication to the Canadian Minister for Trade and Customs, has for some time strongly urged the desirability of the contract for the service being continued. Probably it is as the result of these representations that the present short extension of the contract lias been arranged, in order to secure breathing-time for the negotiations for the more lengthened.renewal. It is understood that there is no disinclination on the part of the Canadian Government to continue the service, but that the difficulty at the moment is the universal one of providing the necessary ships. In the five years for which the eontract has been in operation there was only one month when the shipping company was unable to send a ship from Canada to New Zealand. On that occasion the failure was due to some maritime difficulty preventing the allotted vessel making the trip across the Atlantic early enough to keep its timetable, and the only result was that two vessels instead of one sailed in the following month. The terms of the expired contract', provided for a voyage each month, on a given date, with five days' latitude to the shipping company, the subsidy paid by the Canadian Government being £2400. a trip. The freight rates—concerning which there has been a great deal of complaint lately on the part of commercial men —had in the first instance to be submitted by the company to the Canadian Minister for Trade and Customs, and could not afterwards be altered without the Minister's consent, so that any changes made recently must have been authorised by the Government;