SHEDS PACKED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26635, 4 December 1947, Page 4

SHEDS PACKED

INFLUX OF CARGO DUTY OF CONSIGNEES EMERGENCY MEETING HELD Due to a qumber of reasons—principally a sudden influx- of shipping after hold-ups at northern port's—storage sheds on the Dunedin wharves and in the railway yards have become seriously congested with goods, which have piled up too quickly for clearance to warehouses in the city. This state of affairs has been experienced previously, but now that a climax has been reached, action has been taken to ask stores and warehouses to work at nights and on Saturday mornings to co-operate with carters in clearing the congestion.

Under present conditions, waterside workers arc on an 11-hour day. After working on Saturday mornings, they have worked about 59 hours a week. Consignees observe a 40-hour week and do not work on Saturdays, so the result is that carriers are unable to cooperate witli watersiders in clearing congested sheds. The president of the Otago Commercial Carriers’ Association, Mr W. W. Watt, told the Daily Times yesterday that carriers would work the extended shift to clear up cargo congestion. He said that ini the past fortnight there had been an abnormal influx of shipping and cargoes were extremely heavy Hard work had resulted, and he could say that carters had done their part with credit. Congestion in the railway yards had been acute—cargoes from the Mahana and Norfolk conveyed from Port Chalmers were still lying in the railway sheds and an extra problem had been created by the priority given to the Fort Grant’s cargo of woolpacks. It was the opinion of his association that the Railways Department would greatly assist by acquiring mobile cranes to handle goods efficiently in the yards. Carriers’ Hard Task

‘•’The watersiders have been toiling to get the cargoes out of the ships and into the sheds so that a smart turnround may be ensured,” Mr Watt continued, “ but, through no fault of their’s, our task has been increased by the fact that we cannot uncover a lot of the consignments which have been stacked in the sheds. After the watersiders have worked at nights to unload ships, the situation in the mornings, when the carters arrive, is most difficult.” The present congestion had been caused by the delays at northern ports and also by the pre-Christmas rush, Mr Watt said. He thought that firms would have to open their premises during the Christmas period, because the wharf sheds simply could not hold all the cargoes. Mr Watt added that carriers had assisted consignees in the past by working late on Friday nights and Saturday mornings to hold goods over the week-ends in trucks and the carriers’ own premises. That was unsatisfactory. however, because they were left with the responsibility of the goods until delivery.

A wide variety of goods were to be seen piled in sheds and on the wharves yesterday afternoon. Only a few of the items were gunnies, tea boxes*, beer barrels, corn, sugar, arrowroot, timber, hardwood, pig iron, drums of methylated spirits, sago, machinery, and refrigerators.

The Dunedin branch manager of the Waterfront Industry Commission, Mr A. Matheson, told the Daily Times that he could not recollect such an influx of cargoes. In recent years ships had been carrying a much larger volume of cargo, yet shed space .at Dunedin was not very much greater than 15 years ago. Appliances had been acquired, however, which had proved helpful. Because of continued fine weather. 20 gangs of waterside workers had been shifting from 2500 to 3000 tons of cargo a day, he said. Such excessive inward cargoes would have a serious effect on the loading of outward consignments. Mr Matneson said he had heard nothing about a cargo control committee being set up for Dunedin. The whole position was discussed at a meeting held yesterday of representatives of ship owners, the Otago Harbour Board, Railways Department, Waterfront Industry Commission, Importers and Shippers’ Association, Commercial Transport Association, and manufacturers, when it was decided that the only way to meet the emergency was to request stores and warehouses to co-operate with carters —who were willing to work at nights and on Saturday mornings. It was stated that a co-operative effort would solve the difficulty in a more desirable way than by the possible appointment of a cargo control committee, which wouid have arbitrary powers.