The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1933. THE PROBLEM OF PORTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 241, 12 October 1933, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1933. THE PROBLEM OF PORTS.

For tho cause that lads assistance, For Ihc wrong that needs resistance, For tlic future in the distance, And the good that kc can da

The chairman of the Dairy Export Board has come back from London with very decided views on the arrangement by which our loading of exports is spread over many ports. He emphasises the importance of regular well-spaced arrivals of cargoes in England, to obtain which faster vessels must be employed and the number of .loading ports reduced. The shipping companies are doing their part by providing new ships, and Mr. lorns calls upon Xew Zealand to co-operate by concentrating loading on a few ports. Ho is convinced by personal inspection of conditions at Home that this change is necessary. The wastage involved in the present system of sending ships tramping round the coast for weeks has been pointed out over and over again for years past, but 'nothing has been done. There has nut even been the investigation that is obviously required into the costs of the internal transportation that would have to be undertaken if certain ports were closed. Here is a case in point. A Home steamer is unable (o work a port, A, that lies between B and 0, to cither of which A's produce could be railed. After spending some days steaming about, the ship is compelled to go to B, where she takes in A's produce, sent there by rail. When Ml , . lorns says that five ports—Auckland, Wellington, New Plymouth, Lyttelton and Bluff —provide about 90 per cent of the produce shipped, ho is apparently referring to dairy produce only. The problem, however, cannot be considered only from the Dairy Board's point of view. It would be next to useless to concentrate butter exports and leave ships to dodge about from minor port to minor port picking up meat and wool. Ships take mixed cargoes from New Zealand, and the loading question must be looked at as a whole. It is one that the new Transport Department should take up What is needed is a full statement of the economic effect of such concentration as Mr. lorns proposes. What would be the cost of carrying butter and meat from the outdistricts to the major ports instead of shipping them at the district ports, and how would this compare with the present cost of sending Home ships up and down the coast? Already (here is some transportation of export produce Croin small to large ports in coastal ships. Of course there will bo strong opposition from local interests, for every port wishes to be an export centre, but if the saving to be made is anything like what it promises to be on the information available, this opposition should be ignored.