CARGO FIRST

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 221, 7 December 1927, Page 8

CARGO FIRST

THE more the Auckland Harbour Board is considered the more grows the amazement at its complexity. There is moved by the chairman, acting on the advice of the harbourmaster, a motion to regulate traffic between Queen’s and Prince’s Wharves so that the danger to ferries may be lessened. The proposal aims only at applying the safeguard when ferry traffic is at its rush —for three-quarters of an hour in the morning and for the same period in the evening. AVith the lesson before them of the dreadful ferry tragedy in Sydney harbour, the board refuses the proposition of its chairman and the advice of its harbourmaster. Notwithstanding the plain statement of Mr. Mackenzie that the board should consider above all things the safety of human life, the board determined to study above all things the convenience of cargo. There being a letter of protest from nine shipping companies, Mr. Inder championed their cause. It would be entirely wrong to cause a slight delay to the transfer of a ton of coal or to hold up for even three-quarters of an hour a case of benzine, even though the lives of a thousand ferry passengers were jeopardised. Mr. Inder said that years had passed without the “possibility” of an accident in the basin. There are “possibilities” that Captain Sergeant, being a sailor, andr at the same time being the harbourmaster of a busy port, knows what he is talking about. There are likewise “possibilities’” that Mr. Inder, being a lawyer, doesn’t. It is proverbial that lawyers know very little concerning the sea, however much their opinions may be authoritative on matters of land and mortgages. Mr. Inder considers that if there is a danger between ferries and oversea ships (admitting the possibility he denies), the ferries should give way to the oversea vessels. This is indeed sound sea-lawyer logic. Here eomes an oversea tramp with a crew of-—“me and the cook and the captain bold and the mate of the Nancy brig, and the bo’sun tight and the midshipmite and the crew of the captain s gig”—all ten of them wishing to get ashore. Here also is a crowded ferry boat, with an anxious skipper desiring to arrive at or depart from the “tee.” Let him await the convenience of the cargo of precious junk or court the risk of sinking his worthless little inconvenience and its noaccount complement! The harbourmaster’s proposal did not spare the ferries. In the interests of safety he decided that during the three-quarters of an hour period a ferry leaving the “tee” must depart at least one minute after the preceding ferry had departed. This might result in a ferry departing only half-filled. Yet the very man who might have contested this in his own interest was the man to champion it warmly in the interests of public safety—the Hon. E. AY. Alison, who is also a member of the Harbour Board. This notwithstanding, the board in its uncollective wisdom decided against its chairman, its harbourmaster, and the man who knows more about the risks of ferry traffic than any other man in this country. However, the question is not yet disposed of. It was referred to the board in committee, and it may be that the board in committee will develop more.sense than it exhibits in public.