SHIPPING OUR WOOL

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 46, 26 March 1930, Page 8

SHIPPING OUR WOOL

/ THE EXPERIENCE OF THE " BENVENUE. WHERE . EXPORT TRADE SHOULD . BE CONCENTR ATED . Elsewhere on this page we publish the picture of a cargo. vessel alongside the Napier Breakwater, tvhere shq is loadirig wool for London and the Co'ntiiient. This is the Benvenue, one of the. Scales Line of , steamers, which berthed. without, the slightest difficulty, , was loaded ,with despatch and proceeded to Lyttelton. • In 1 fact, there was hot the • slightest trouble. The wool was railed to the vessel's side, -as is shown in the picture, and was quickly placed aboard by the gangs of watersiders engaged. This presented to Hawke^s Bay producers a splendid example- of how big- savings could be /made if only the ex'port trade of" tliq province was handled over a wharf, as is dorie' at "other centfes, instead of the cumbersome and costly method of loading -from lighters out in the roadstead, nearly two miles from the port. The visit of the- Waihemo a few days earlier saved/local traders no less a sum ■ than £800 lighterage on the 1600 tons of cargo .she larided on the Breakwater wharf ' and similar savings, but of a •much lighter nature, could be made il -the wool and meat vessel s were accommodated ' at a wharf at Napier. The Venvenue lifted 3600. bales of wool and also a quantity of tallow and skins. A' fair proportion of the wool was, strangely. enough, shipped hy a sheepfarmer who has for many years been a consistent opponent of the Breakwater, but who on this occasion enjoyed tlie •privilege of getting his wool to London over tne wharf with every satisfaction and a (big.saving to himself. It is interesting to note that the Benvenue is 440 feet in length and was drawihg 21ft. 9in. on arrival. Of co'urse, much lafiger vessel s have worked the ; Breakwater wharf, but we give this as a fair example of what could he done bv way of developing the Breakwater, "ex]Janding the trade of the port, ; and making big savings to the sneepfarmers if the wliole of the export trade of Hawke's Bay were concentr ated in the ' directiori we suggest. It is only hy. concerted action that the sheep-farniers of Hawke's Bay will produce a satisfactory solution of the difficulty.