More Cargo Left Behind

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23086, 31 July 1940, Page 8

More Cargo Left Behind

The chairman of the Waterfront Control Commission, having obtained a report from the Auckland Waterfront Controller, has issued a statement which explains, up to a point, why the Monterey left some of her cargo on the wharf. The explanation is that the men were first told they would not be needed after five or six and later asked to'go on working after six. They refused, not having had sufficient time to let their • wives know they would be late for tea. The controller and the wharf superintendents, having had no. notice at all, were unable to arrange for fresh gangs to finish the job. Butthis explains how it happened that an overseas ship, . hj. once more, sailed without part of her cargo; it does not explain why, under the new system, ‘Z* 'such ajhing is still possible. The Waterfront Sfe -■ ' • • ' >.■ . ife;;

Control Commission and the waterside controllers under it have been appointed to avoid these delays and defeats, not to explain them. They have been fully empowered. Their control should be complete. There can be only one test of its completeness and effectiveness. They must be demonstrated in improved and consistent efficiency on the waterfronts. Every failure there necessarily raises two questions: how it occurred, and why the control was helpless. Captain Price jias answered the first, incompletely. The second he has not answered at all. But it is the important one.