TURN-ROUND OF SHIPS

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26511, 28 August 1951, Page 6

TURN-ROUND OF SHIPS

* ’NO IMPROVEMENT'AT if j : MOST N.Z. PORTS h AUCKLAND QUOTED AS e EXCEPTION 8 / (New Zealand Atf Dotation/ 6 WELLINGTON, August 21. B The rate of work in New Zealand ports, Auckland excepted, was as bad b as before the waterfront strike, salt 1 the general manager in New Zealand ’ for the New Zealand Shipping Cotn- » pany (Mr F. w. Spite) yesterday. ■ Mr Spite said that work at Napier, Lyttelton, Dunedin, and all the other ports had shown no improvement what- , soever. At Wellington, it was just as bad as before the strike, if not worse. | However, he said, a great job was bet lag done by the new union at Auck- ; land. The new unionists, who oeme from all walks of life, were putting I that port far ahead of the others. I In a pre-war and , post-war com- . parison of the turn-round of ships in ; New Zealand ports, Mr Spite Said to- . day that ships of the Rangitlkl and Rangitata class, before the war, were , scheduled to spend 28 days on the ; New Zealand coast, but to-day the . same ships could only be run on a , schedule providing for 53 days Oh the ; coast.

“All concerned ate anxious to give the Auckland Maritime Cargo Workers' Unkm the highest praise for the new approach they have brought to bear on their work and the splendid job they are doing," saifi Mr Spite. “This applies also to those new men who came forward at other ports and to those registered members of the old Union Who have hot sought to retain restrictive practices and abuses previously in force.

“At the sedohdary ports, such as Napier, New Plymouth, Timaru, and Bluff, the rate of work has not fallen off to the same extent as at the main ports, but everywhere there was serious deterioration under the Waterfront Commission which came into being early in 1940. “Just as In a grain store experienced hands handle heavy lifts without difficulty, so in the stowage of a ship men have to acquire the knack of handling beef and mutton, for instance, ana speed follows. The new men are handling those commodities so well that they are already up to the speed at which experienced men were handling them before the strike, and this speaks for itself. “The Government must always be congratulated for tackling this problem as it did and making a new era on the Waterfront possible/