The Daily News. TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1917. TARANAKI'S OCEAN TRANSPORT SERVICE.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1917. TARANAKI'S OCEAN TRANSPORT SERVICE.

When a community is placed in possession of a great boon, for which it has been long waiting, there is a feeling of intense satisfaction. In the ease of Taranaki, the country settlers and townspeople have every reason to be gratified at the consummation of their efforts to obtain direct shipment to the Home and other overseas markets from the port at Moturoa. The inauguration of this service takes place to-morrow, when the first Home liner will visit the port, and it has been deemed fitting to celebrate the event by a luncheon at Moturoa, at which representatives of public bodies throughout, the province have been invited as the guests of the citizens of New Plymouth, and to which it is hoped that the settlers and townspeople will also be attracted in large numbers. To have allowed such an important event to have passed unhonored would have been most impolitic, for it marks an era in Taranaki's progress that raises the province to the level of the chief districts in the Dominion. Many factors have contributed to the attainment of this long-needed boon, but the main lever has been the great success of the dairying industry and the impetus given to sheep and cattle raising by the process of settlement. Cooperative dairy factories have raised Taranaki to the position of one of the most prosperous districts in the Dominion, and the recent erection of the freezing works by the farmers lias placed the coping stone on tins producers' organisation. AH that was needed was direct shipment of produce, and, now that is an accomplished fact, Taranaki should bask in the sunshine of prosperity to the full. One great cause for satisfaction is that the harbor has been made suitable and safe for ocean liners without any rate being so far levied on the settlers, and the more use that is made of our harbor the better will be the Board's finances. There have not been wanting pessimists who were convinced that the harbor at Moturoa would never be more than a place of call for coastal vessels; it is all the more pleasing therefore to reach the day when any ships that could bo berthed at the large centres can safely come to New Plymouth. The farmers and settlers own the harbor quite as surely as they own the co-operative works connected with dairying and meat freezing, and that is why they should take a pride in suitably marking the fulfilment of the object for which the harbor was made as complete as it is to-day.