Harbour Boards.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 11, 19 May 1911, Page 5

Harbour Boards.

Some Suggestions.

By NAUTILUS. W-β look to the Harbour Boards of the Dominion to take a wider outlook over the waterside industry than has been their wont hitherto. There can be no hesitation in saying that a great saving would, accrue to the public if these bodies not only undertook the handling of cargo when landed on the wharves as is dene in Wellington but took effective charge of the industry and the whole work of loading and discharging of vessels, together with the cartage of the cargo to the stores and warehouses. The measure of control a® exercised in Wellington is -undoubtedly a step in advance of many other places in the. Southern Hemisphere, but the fact of having mad© one advance should not cause the live members to rest on tneir oars but rather to push forward in the interests of the whole community. We see in the cable news of the sth ult. a leading business man stating that if a central clearing house were established in London on the same lines as the bankers clearing houses it would result in a saving to business men of £2,000,000 per annum. Now take our local Harbour Board. Here we have a staff of men checking and tallying a few small packages on to one ©art, a few small cases on to another and so on ad lib., when if the whole load of six expresses were put on a decent sized "straker" wagon it would but half fill it. The writer has stood at the wharf gate and counted a string of carte waiting to be unloaded alongside a vessel, the whole contents of which could be comfortably put into two. To direct these surplus carts into their proper turn and place required the service of two highly paid officials; to unload them required the services of two gangs of men. What with time losrb whilst one cart shifted to make room for another, the blockage of transhipping trucks, the wear ajad tear on the- wharf surface, the extra

cost to the merchant entailed by the unnecessary employment of the surplus carts—if the whole were counted up at the end of a year it would make a very considerable amount. Not only this but go through the list of accidents which have occurred to the Harbour Boards workers and you will find that a large percentage of them are caused by the same needless congested traffic. A public body which really meant business and was not tied by the undemocratic system of election to vested interest would immediately take charge of the industry in reality, dispense with this useless waste of good time and material, and place any surplus made to the benefit of the class which most needs it—the extremely casual workers.