SHIPPING DISABILITIES AT CAPETOWN.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 11 October 1901, Page 4

SHIPPING DISABILITIES AT CAPETOWN.

Great Lack of Accommodation.

Wellington, This Day,

Captain Todd, colonial superintendent of the Tyser line, has just returned to New Zealand via the Capo. During a brief stay at Capetown Captain Todd was impressed with the deficiencies of the dock and berth accommodation there. When the Paparoa called there were about forty sailing ships and twelve steamers waiting berths, and one steamer, the Clan Mclntosh, had been waiting nearly two months for an opportunity to discharge cargo. The case of the Tekoa affords striding proof of the drawbacks at present attendant on trade .with Capetown. She took from New Zealand fifty to sixty tons of refrigerated produce, and over a thousand tons of other produce. The authorities would only allow her to berth for the discharge of her refrigerated produce, an offer not worth accepting. The Tyser liner Indramayo also had to carry her Capetown cargo on. After incurring a week’s delay she discharged some cargo at Durban, but could not get any coal there, and had to pay 85s a ton at Capetown for a quantity sufficient to carry her on to Teneriffe. In additition to the lack of quay berths, there was a great shortage of railway tracks for taking a delivery of general cargo. There were big stacks'" of produce on the approaches to the docks, the piles of machinery in the vicinity of the quays and docks being extended, but a considerable period would elapse before the goods would be taken away. The cargoes of the War Office authorities were given prompt discharge, A lot of Canadian stuff is being received by about one steamer a week, including hay and other produce. Trade with South Africa is conducted under great disadvantages. Steamers which make Capetown an intermediate port, and have to go to London, take up the timeablo running. The companies in the New Zealand trade expected to lose on the calls made by their vessels at South African ports, but they yielded to public agitation in order that a test might be made. Captain Todd heard that the De Beers Company was erecting cold storage at Capetown with a view to supplying Kimberley and other inland towns with frozen • produce. The large amount of money expended in consequence of the war was making certain lines of business in Capetown busy ao’d prosperous,