DELAYS IN N.Z. PORTS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25955, 8 November 1949, Page 4

DELAYS IN N.Z. PORTS

COMPLAINT BY MASTER OF SHIP (New Zealand Press Association.) DUNEDIN, November 7. Although there were instances where cargoes were handled expeditiously and a ship was promptly turned round, there were many others in the opposite category, said Captain Johnson, master of the 10,000-ton cargo steamer City of Calcutta dyring his recent visit to Port Chalmers. He had then been 42 days on the New Zealand coast unloading portion of a 7000ton cargo which had been loaded iri eight days and one night. A large portion of the cargo was bagged linseed and newsprint. It was loaded at three ports on the St. Lawrence river and steaming time between ports was included in the eight days and a night. Captain Johnson said it took much longer to load cargo than to discharge it, as it had to be stowed properly. After 42 days in New Zealand he still had more than 1000 tons to discharge at Lyttelton before leaving fur Australia, where he had about 6000 tons of cargo to unload. Captain Johnson said much of the trouble in New* Zealand was because a shortage of labour. Other delays were caused by wharf sheds that were usually crammed with merchandise. There was no space available into which he could unload. Some of his cargo was newsprint and when it was raining he could not dump it on to open wharves. In one instance space was so congested he had to arrange for motor trucks to take the cargo away.

It was high time, he said, that all associated with the waterfront realised that wasted time meant higher import costs and higher prices to the consumer. In the final analysis the public paid. If too much time was wasted in the turn-round of a ship it only meant that the shipping companies had to raise freights. They could not operate at a loss. In the head office of his company in Britain there were 300 employees alone. These had to be paid. Overseas agents had to be paid and also the ship’s crew, and the ships themselves had to earn all this money.

Ships being built to-day had more modern equipment and were faster than those of a decade ago. What was the use of building to cut down the time occupied by a voyage when, after reasonably speedy loading, 'delays were experienced at this end? One cancelled out the other. Captain Johnson .said he had not been to Port Chalmers for 10 years but the handling of cargo to-day was no better than it was then. \