Master Outlines Factors Affecting Shipping Rates

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28253, 15 April 1957, Page 10

Master Outlines Factors Affecting Shipping Rates

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, April 14. High running costs, taxation, high handling charges, delays due to weather, and delays due to the New Zealand Railways were the main causes of the present high coastal shipping rates, said Captain C. M. Anderson, master of the motor vessel r, ainui at Oamaru tonight.

“Few people outside of shipping realise the enormous cost of bad weather to New Zealand,”' said Captain Anderson. “Yet for the coastal shipping industry there is an answer to this problem —covered terminals for small ships at the major ports. “This should not be beyond the bounds of possibility. The cost might be even less than the subsidy the Minister of Civil Aviation so generously hands out for the building of aircraft hangars—and the immediate saving would be enormous.” , Captain Anderson said delays

totally wrong that at ports such as Lyttelton or Timaru, coasters should have to discharge into railway trucks, which were shunted a few miles and then discharged again. An exorbitant freight was charged for this “privilege” of having goods “thrown about” twice instead of once. “An efficient coastal terminal must have wharfage space offering the option of road or rail transport. Tho rapid growth of the North Island compared with the south is probably largely due to the stranglehold held over the South Island by the New Zealand Railways,” said Captain Anderson. Captain Anderson said he mentioned these points “in the hope that a discussion of them might lead to a more efficient turnround of coastal vessels to the general benefit of the community.” The points mentioned by Captain Anderson were worthy of a full investigation, said Captain M. M. McArthur, vice-president of the