CONGESTED WHARVES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 134, 1 March 1919, Page 9

CONGESTED WHARVES

; . POSITION IN WELLINGTON TEMPORARY DIFFICULTIES CAUSED BY WAR The congestion pn' the Wellington ivnaiyes, mentioned at the meeting of . the Harbour Board on Wednesday night, is causing the harbour officials a, great • deal of anxiety. The stores are overcrowded, cargoes are arriving more rapidly than they' can be handled, and iflere are delays that are vexatious ..both shipping companies and to consignees. _ The trouble is due directly to the war. If the board had been able to complete the works it has in hand and 1 in contemplation i the congestion would not havo arisen in 'its present severe form. /If the waiihad not brought about a short- ' age of shipping, coastal and overseas, the consignors of goods ; would inot have adopted so generally, a practice of consigning to Wellington agents goods in. tended to reach other ports. The list- of Wellington harbour works delayed by the war is as follows, the figures showing the .pre-war estimate of cost:— ■ ■, . A Kpitea Wharf 190,000 ■Te Ato Wharf 98,000 Taranaki Street store ...... 12,400. Repairs and maintenance supply i. store 10,000 Jervois Quay breastwork' (widening) 130,300 Remodelling sheds for electric cranes and equipment ~V. 31,000 Temporary iainbton store, No. 1 10,000 Office accommodation 5,000 ' ' .£486,700 The secretary of itiie board (Mr. H. E. Nicholls) told a Dominion reporter yesterday that the port of Wellington certainly would, not turn away trade".'But, . as the chairman of the board had stated at the .meeting, on Wednesday night, there were ways in which shippers could assist the board over its temporary difficulties. "We want' shippers to revert if possible: to the old practice' of many years', standing of . .booking cargo through," said Mr. Nicholls. "That does ■ not. mean that we' want one ton of cargo to pass our doors. But we want the cargo to be. booked in the old way, so, that it can be stacked according to port' . marks and shipped according to these marks on open orders. '/. > 1 "The new practice ,is to consign grods to Wellington,. where individual con", signees , attend •to transhipments them-, pelves. These separate/consignees give separate orders' for their individual ■' marks and packages. Then the.Harhour . Board, v instead of being able 'to ship I cargo, in bulk according to port marks, / ( has to break various lines, out of the, , stacks, an almpsi; impossible task under " ■ present conditions, owing to the limited accommodation! '.) t \' "Take a cohcrete case. ■' Tlio board' re-'

■ ceives ■ in. its stores. 200' barrels of oil, ' which under the/old system'would have . been consigned to a Dunedin firm*. The oil under the old system wpuld be stacked according to port-mart and shipped on open order from the agent of the sischarging vessel. At present such a con-

signment may have ,to be shipped/piecemeal on individual order from the agent or the consignor. This means breaking stacks and sorting marks'in the stores.. If the board : had'been able to provide the extra, accommodation and facilities it has planned the work could have been done. But under presont/conditions it' seems necessary to ask : for a return.to the old system." . •: