SHIPPING SERVICES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 460, 15 September 1928, Page 14

SHIPPING SERVICES

DAIRY BOARD POLICY DEFENDED MR. lORNS IN REPLY Press Association MASTERTON, Friday. An address on the policy and activities of the Dairy Produce Control Board was delivered by the chairman, Mr. W. A. lorns, at a largely attended annual meeting of the Masterton Dairy Company today. Mr. lorns, who was received with hearty applause, ridiculed a statement emanating from Pahiatua that the Dairy Board was paying £I,OOO more for shipping services than it need have done, for prior to the last meeting of the board, a committee was set up to go into the whole question of shipping. It brought down a report in which it was recommended that two members of the board’s headquarters staff should be transferred, one to New Plymouth and one to Auckland, to handle the shipping work. It was added that these men could also be utilised for doing a certain amount of the board’s work other than shipping. In advocating this change the committee urged that it would facilitate and make more efficient the work of inspection at the ports.

Members of the committee were confident that the board could do the work as cheaply as the associations. Mr. lorns said he had always favoured this policy. A statement in the Press that the board last year unanimously agreed to give shipping work to the associations was absolutely incorrect. This work had been done by the associations to the satisfaction of the board in the past, but there had been discontent on the part of other producers’ organisations and factories on account of increased production and separate documentation of white and coloured cheese. SHIPPING WORK HEAVIER Mr. lorns observed that shipping agency work would be much heavier this year than in the past, yet the associations were now prepared to do this work for £2,000, excluding Wellington, whereas their charges in 192425 (including Wellington) had been £5,750; in 1925-26, £2,900; and in 1926- £7,300, including work done under absolute control. The first tender put in by the associations for 1927- was £4,450, but on some members of the board taking exception to this price an offer was made to do the work for £3,535, a saving for that year alone of over £9OO. If shipping work could be done by the associations for £2,000, what justification was there for the difference between this amount and what the board had paid them during the past five years? It was absolutely imperative, Mr. lorns declared, that the board should control closely the handling and shipping of dairy produce. Criticism of the recent policy of the board had all come from factories which had in their directorate members of the associations which suffered a loss of revenue by the decision of the board to do its own shipping work. HOW COMPANIES BENEFIT

As showing how an individual company benefited from the existence of the board, Mr. lorns said the Masterton Dairy Company paid £145 a year to keep the board going and in 1929-30 there would be a reduction of £1,003 per annum in the company’s freights alone. Since the board had come into existence he was not going to take credit to the board for the whole of this reduction, but the board was the only authority that had ever been set up in this country to make statutory contracts for the whole dairy industry. Before the board was brought into existence producers had no effective means of securing v freight and other reductions. Reductions in insurance rates negotiated by the board represented a saving to the Masterton Company of £ll3 a year. There was a further saving to the company of £IOO a year by a reduction of the charges for cold storage in London, assuming a week’s storage of its season's export output. A vote thanks to Mr. lorns and of confidence in the Dairy Board and in Mr. lorns as chairman of that body was carried unanimously. I WELLINGTON HIDE SALE (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The fortnightly sale of hides, skins and tallow was held to-day. Quotations are: Dry Sheepskins.—Competition restricted; id to Id lower than last sale. Half bred. 15d to 16Jd; fine crossbred, 13d to 16d; medium crossbred, 12d to 14ld; coarse crossbred, 12d to 135 d; half wools, lOd to 13gd; quarter wools, Sd to 12id; pelts, 8d to 9d. Salted Skins. —Good demand at full late i-ates. Pelts, 4s 2d; quarter wools, 8s 7d; half wools, 9s to 10s 7d; three-quarter wools, 10s 6d to 11s 2d; full wools, 10s to 13s 9d; extra large, 15s to 15s Sd; lambs, 6s 5d to 9s 2d. Hides.—As compared with prices current at last auctions held here, heavies and mediums were on a par. Lights, id to id higher; kip, par to id lower; yearlings in sellers’ favour; calf, id to id higher; ox, 331 b to 441 b, 10 3-8 d to 11 l-8d; ox, 451 b to 521 b, 10gd to 10 7-8 d; ox, 531 b to 591 b, lOd to llid; ox, 601 b to 691 b, lid to llid; ox, 701 b and over, 115 to 11 5-8 d; cow, 331 b to 391 b, 5d to llid; cow, 401 b to 481 b, 9 l-8d to 10 7-8 d; cow, 491 b and over, 9 5-Sd to 102 d; kip, 251 b to 321 b, Sd to 12 l-8d; kip, 171 b to 241 b, lid to 12 7-8 d; kip, yearling, 111 b to 161 b, llid to 12 7-8 d; calf 91b to 101 b, lOd to 12d; calf, 61b to 81b, is|d to 19d; calf, lib to 51b, 13id to 192 d. Tallow.—At late rates. In casks, 28s to 31s 6d. In tins, etc., 24s to, 30s. Sundries.—Cow tails, 15d. Horsehair, 18d to 20d.