STATEMENT “NOT JUSTIFIED”

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

STATEMENT “NOT JUSTIFIED”

t MR A. E. BOCKETT’S ’ VIEW ’ MOST PORTS SAID TO HAVE IMPROVED ! (New Zealand Press Association) Wellington, August 27. Mr A. E. Bockett, chairman of the ' Waterfront Industry Commission, said . to-day that the commission's records did not justify the statement made by Mr F. W. Spite, general manager of the New Zealand Shipping Company, Ltd., that the rate of work in New Zealand ports, except Auckland, was as bad as before the waterfront strike. Mr Bockett said that every credit Was due to the members of the new union at Auckland lot the substantial increase in the rate of work now being performed at that port. It should be appreciated that before the strike Auckland was notorious as the slowest working port in New Zealand, and there was ample room for improvement. Since the formation of the separate port unions there had been an improvement in the work at most ports. The abolition of spelling, the working of the full hours 'for which the men are paid, the elimination of the restrictive practice of limiting the weight of sling loads, and the reduction of delays through wet ahd windy weather, 2nd a reduction in the time taken in the handling of hatches, shunting, etc., had all assisted in improving the turnround of shipping at New Zealand ports. Before the strike good work was performed by waterside workers at the ports of Bluff, Port Chalmers, Timaru, and Nelson, he added, and even better worlt was now being done at these ports since the formation of their separate port unions. The work now being done at the ports of Wellington and Dunedin was better than that which existed before the strike. At the ports of Napier and Lyttelton there had been some improvement in certain classes of cargo, although other classes did not show tne same improvement. Mt Bockett concluded by saying that he felt that as the new members of the various port unions obtained greater experience in the loading end discharging of ships, a further improvement in the rate of work would be obtained.