LOADING FOODSHIPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 309, 30 December 1940, Page 6

LOADING FOODSHIPS.

Any delay on the part of New Zealand in quickly turning round the ships which como to New Zealand can only bo regarded as criminal, says the Minister for Labour. Mi*. Webb is right; and he has the power to do something about it. Will he or will we submit to a continuance of the experiences of the past? Will ships still be held up because there is a drizzle which would not wet a hen, because one class of worker is not getting as extravagant a wage as another, or because somebody wants a pot of hot coffee? This after fifteen months of war, with some of our most useful ships lying on the bottom of the sea, and the half-as-long voyage to the Argentine competing for the rest. Everything will be done to expedite the work, says the Minister; a committee has now been set up to arrange for the quick handling of ships. After fifteen months of war! It is incredible. Setting up committees is a hobby with Mr. Webb. Why is stich a committee, needed to-day? The waterfront commissioners have wide powers. If they were given support in action •which they could now take under those powers to see that the job is done, there would be no need for a committee to help them. But as Air. Webb likes committees it is up to him to see that this one gets down to brass tacks here and now, and that it takes such decisions as will definitely prevent any further delays to shipping. If it does not there will soon be no shipping to delay; it will go to areas where prompt handling is assured.