SHIPPING DISCORD

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30471, 19 June 1964, Page 11

SHIPPING DISCORD

(N. Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) LONDON, June 18. Serious disagreement has arisen between four leading British shipping lines and New Zealand’s primary producers over a far-reaching plan to make the shipment of New Zealand meat, butter and fruit cheaper and more efficient, “The Times” reported today.

The four lines are Shaw Savill and Albion, the New Zealand Shipping Company, Port Line and Blue Star Line.

The plan, published earlier this year after two years’ research by experts in Britain and New Zealand, found that ships were being required to call at too many ports for small quantities of cargo, so that shipping costs on New Zealand exports were unnecessarily high. Five-Year Contract

It recommended that sailing schedules should be streamlined and shore facilities, particularly in New Zealand should be rationalised, said “The Times.”

However, the New Zealand negotiators had refused to accept provisions for five-year contracts for the shipping companies, and for settlement by independent arbitration of any disputes over freight rates.

“The lines, Who seem to have been repeatedly outmanoeuvred by the New Zealanders in freight rate negotiations in recent years, say they are not prepared to invest the necessary millions in new ships and installations unless they have security of tenure and a proper return on capital,” said the newspaper. “The Times” continued: “The New Zealanders, mostly farmer-politicians, are reluctant to give up the element of horse-trading.” The shipping lines argued that the streamlining plan had given New Zealand the chance of orderly, comprehensive shipping services over a guaranteed period at the lowest economic cost.