CARGO HANDLING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 March 1940, Page 5

CARGO HANDLING

SLOW WORK IN NEW ZEALAND PORTS WELLINGTON CRITICISM. COMPARISON WITH LONDON. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. The length of time taken to load ships in New Zealand was the subject of unfavourable comment at a meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce last night. Mr W. H. Kindle said that the captain of an overseas ship had told him that, whereas it took four weeks to load a ship in New Zealand, it took 48 hours, working day and night, to unload in London. It seems that an inordinate length of lime was taken in loading in New Zealand. Certainly the work had been accelerated since il:e war. Something was being done— A voice: "Very little.” Mr Hindle said that something was Icing done particularly in restricting the number of ports where the vessels loaded, but a tremendous amount remained to be done.

Last Saturday, he said, he watched a ship being loaded with wool, and he look time to estimate the number of men working. He discovered that, the percentage was 20. He did not mean to say that four out of five men were doing nothing, but there were always (our out of live men idle —they all took their turn. He could not help reflecting that there was something wrong with a system where only one out of five men was working at the one time. On that Saturday afternoon loading seemed to be going on in an extremely leisurely manner. It appeared that the sort of psychology growing up in New Zealand and being encouraged was: "You are a bit of a mug if you do any more than you have to do.” He thought New Zealanders should wake up to the situation which existed in their midst and endeavour to overcome a handicap and disability under which they were working and which might have serious consequences.