TRADE OF THE PORT

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 289, 31 August 1920, Page 6

TRADE OF THE PORT

IS, WELLINGTON LOSING ITS PREMIER POSITION?

CARGO HANDLED AT SLOWER RATE

BUSINESS MEN DISSATISFIED

The chairman of the Wellington Chamber of 'Commerce (Mr. M. Carr) yesterday made statements that should interest all concerned in the general welfare of Wellington as a port. Mr, Carr said that there was evidence that though tho plant and • accommodation on the wharves had been increased, tlie amount of cargo-received and delivered was less in ltll'J than in previous years. If it vere proved that labour on tho wharves was the cause, then they would all agree that it should be properly administered by the Harbour Board. Previous to the past year, the amount of cargo handled on tho wharves was about 1000 tons a day; at the present time he understood that it was about half that. If the trouble was labour, how was it that othep ports in New Zealand were not similarly ail'ected ? He had been, informed by master mariners and others that the troublo was not so acute in other ports. If it was the system employed that was at fault it would be just as well if it were abandoned or perfected. It had been suggested on more than ono occasion that some system of permanent labour might solve many of tho difficulties which continually recurred, and that, ho believed, was the opinion held among commercial men. It seemed to him that in the management of the wharves some attempt should be made by the Harbour Board to place wharf labour an a different basis than that which

• existed at present. When the agreement now in force was made with the watersidcrs, tho commercial men of the city wero never consulted. The Harbour Board, the shipping companies, and the watersiders were called in, but the 'commercial men—the men who paid— were ndL ' That agreement was not a satisfactory one, otherwise 1 they would not have had the conditions which had obtained lately. The trade of Wellington was going to other ports, notably to some of the coastal ports in Taranaki and, elsewhere, as tho result of the increased charges here and the 'disadvantages which were not experienced iu other porta. By increased charges, he did not mean Harbour Board charges, but such charges as were represented in cartage and labour as the result of inadequate arrangements and , the congestion which occurred. He had no objection to adequate provision being made for staple products, but adequate provision should also bo made for ordinary commerce, so that there would be no queues of carts extending from the Queon'a Wharf to tho Town Hall. He had been informed that no fewer than sixteen boats had been taken off tho Wellington trade. Thero was some justification for that when it took a small boat a week to discharge,

load, and get her clearance; and when it took a-big subsidised boat thirteen days. The Harbour Board should go very «x----naustively into the cause of this unsatis. factory state of affairs with a view to arriving at a solution and settlement 01 the difficulty. Whilst the board had provided increased accommodation ror < 19,500 tons of cargo, it had not provided accommodation for 400 tons of transhipments for the smaller steamers. There was probably no one at the meeting who had not had the experience of having to wait from eight to ten hours at the wharf to get his cargo away. They, all appreciated the work of Mr. J. G. Harkness; both as president of the chamber and as chairman of tho Harbour Board, and knew the great interest he took in the port and trade of Wellington, and he w_ould be sorry to think any criTicism offered would be taken indignantly. It must be taken in the spirit in which it was offered; it was constructive and not destructive criticism. (Hear, hear.) Mr. W. S. Wilson said that tho reason the port was so inefficient was not altogether due to the labour conditions on the waterfront. The merchants and the Harbour Board should speed up. Methods of working was a question which was very much involved, and he would suggest that' a committee of inquiry be set up to go into the whole matter. They had had the matter before them in a committee of the chamber, and e,ven there what ono member stated was contradicted by another. Something was certainly "wrong'when less work (relatively) was done in Wellington than in Auckland, Sydney, or San Francisco. Ho had boen informed by oue man that on rib account .would he allow a tinre-char-Irred 'vessel to come to Wellington. The committee of inquiry he suggested 6hould be composed 1 of outside experts. . Captain Petersen, referring to aWanganui complaint about delay in handling transhipments here, said that he had consulted tho owners of tho steamers, and had boen told that delays had occurred owing to the weather for a month past having been exceedingly bad. Tho bars also had been bad (at Wanganui), and there hnd been it scarcity of labour thero, which was invariably the "case when a mutton-boat was loading in the oiling. As to transhipments, merchants had told him that to clear the wharves they invariably gave preference to such goods over town cargo. It was truo that a considerable amount of, cargo had been held up in.Wellington, but there was not more than could be cleared up in a fortnight. Mr. It. E. Sinclair said ho was pleased to see that tho chamber was asking Wanganui for specific charges. He mentioned that apart from the Huia and In-vercargill.-.the Kapiti had been on tho slip for five weeks. There-was a comniitlete of the board sitting at present which was devising a scheme which would employ several hundred "ponnanent casuals." The board's charges were all going up in October—they had to do that to make ends incet. That would mean a rise from 3s. to is. a ton, making it equal to Auckland's charge, so that evidently the Wellington Board had been charging a lower rate than Auckland. Mr. C. If. Banks said that former-? carters were allowed to dump cargo on the wharf; now that was not allowed, as of rain camo on, the men would knock otf and tho board would have to take tho responsibility for any damage done. The "zone system" was not working very veil. Duly recently one of his men hnd to wait from 10 a.m. until 3.15 p.m. to get a load away by the Monowai. ' The chairman thought it was too early to criticise the zone system of shipping cargo.