SHIPPING POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 75, 29 March 1928, Page 8

SHIPPING POLICY.

FLAT RATE FROM PORTS.

WISDOM QTTESTIONED.

VIGOROUS DEFENCE HEARD.

•By Telegraph—Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, this day.

Speaking at the animal meeting of the Wellington Harbour Board last night, the chairman, Mr. J. G. Cobbe, regretted having to direct attention to the fact that a flat rate for freight from all ports in the Dominion was still in operation. It seemed an extraordinary thing that produce shipped from a port such as Wellington, which provided safe accommodation for ships and the most modern facilities for the cheap, efficient and rapid handling of cargo, should be subject to the same rates of freight as produce shipped by small, out-of-the-way and exposed ports where delay was considerable, working expenses were high and shipping arrangements primitive.

Not the Time to Change.

Mr. C. M. TuTrell said the whole question was purely a matter of policy, and he personally thought the present system was the best policy. The development of the country would never have reached the point it had done to-day if it had not been for the establishment of meat freezing works throughout New Zealand. The freezing of fat stock for export could never have been properly catered for by central freezing works. The freezing companies had been largely formed by the farming community, and the country to-day was not in a position suddenly to change its export shipping policy. There was no means of transport to feed the main ports in the way suggested. It would require a guarantee of maintenance for a considerable term of years before the essential coastal shipping services would be established. Moreover, large > holding stores would be required at the main ports for meat and other produce awaiting shipment. The policy adopted in the past had put New Zealand 50 to 100 years ahead of what it would have been otherwise. To change that policy suddenly would mean the scrapping of a large amount of capital. He deprecated harbour boards vieing with one another to increase their business at the expense of others. Congestion Would Result.

Mr. Turrell maintained that the accommodation in the main ports was not sufficient to do what was suggested. In Wellington only six, or possibly seven berths were equipped with railway lines to handle meat and dairy produce. Auckland was probably worse oft. He asserted that serious congestion would be caused if the export trade was concentrated in the main ports. The whole question needed a very great deal of thinking out before any change was urged.