THROUGH-BOOKING.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 32, 4 August 1911, Page 4

THROUGH-BOOKING.

PRODUCE BY RAIL AND SEA. At a meeting of the Farmers’ Union Conference, Mr Ivo Tunnicliffe (Nelson) moved: —“That the Dominion Conference be again asked to urge the Government to adopt a scheme of through-booking of produce by rail and sea.”

The mover said that this was the third or fourth year that this remit had been before the conference, and each time that the matter had been brought before the Government it had been pu : off. What he desired was that the principle of through-booking" should be established, so that fruit and other produce from any station to any stations along the railway (from north to south and vice versa) could be consigned direct. They asked for hahparcel rates, with a maximum of 5s for H2lb. He also urged that the Government should carry such produce by quick railway service trains, instead of by slow goods trains. The answer of the Minister had always been tb. t he could not carry out the suggestion unless the Government purchased the steamer service. The Gcjvernment, said the speaker, liad not purchased the steamer service when arranging the through carriage of mails. In Great Britain no less than nineteen steamship companies and four railway companies diad adopted such a scheme in the trade with Ireland. He believed that the local shipping companies would be prepared to cooperate in the proposals, and thought the matter might be left in the hands of the Advisory Committee to collect data, and approach the Government again on the subject. Mr Corder (Nelson) seconded the motion, and hoped that the conference would carry it. Mr H. A. Nevins (Wellington) said that luggage could be checked through from Auckland to the Bluff, and he thought that the same system should be adopted in regard to perishable produce.

The president mentioned that Whangarei had the earliest peaches in New Zealand, and their best market was Dunedin. The proposed system would therefore be of benefit to that district. Mr Tunnicliffe, in reply, remarked that the system was partly in use. He could send fruit from Wai-iti, via Nelson, to Wellington on a through freight. The matter was eventually referred to the Union Advisory Committee, to take action to secure the adoption of a scheme as outlined.