VICTORIAN TRADE.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1919, Page 7

VICTORIAN TRADE.

BEING DIVERTED TO SYDNEY. By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Melbourne, Sept. 19. The Melbourne Age, in a special article dealing with the diversion of trade from Melbourne to other ports, especially trade with New Zealand, says it is a fajt that local manufacturers and distributors have lost ground, particularly in the case of New Zealand, because Melbourne has been cut off from all direct con* Biurieation with the Dominion. Nearly all the available steamers now run between Sydney and New Zealand ports. The article points out that shipping companies do not run steamers from Melbourne to Sydney merely to give the crews, a change of scene; it must have been made worth their while, and the secret haa been discovered by the 'business men of Sydney at the expense of those in Wellington. The position regarding cargo awaiting shipment to New Zealand is very seuious. Forty thousand pounds worth of tea alone, purchased by New Zealand business bouses, is held up with no immediate possibility of shipment. Two steamers leave Melbourne for New Zealand in the ne,xt few weeks, but their space is quite inadequate to meet the requirements. The attitude of the companies is that it does not pay to run combined passenger and cargo steamers between Melbourne and New Zealand, because .insufficient passengers are offering, while the cargo steamers have mostly been diverted to the coal trade to meet the Dominion's acute industrial and domestic situation.—Aus. N.Z. Cable Assoc.