Fishermen Dissatisfied With N.Z. Wire Rope

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30531, 28 August 1964, Page 1

Fishermen Dissatisfied With N.Z. Wire Rope

(From Our Own Reporter)

TIMARU, August 27. “This is another Nelson cotton mill, but on a worse scale,” .said Mr J. G. Sutherland speaking at the annual conference of the New Zealand Federation of Commer-. cial Fishermen to a Nelson remit that the quality and prices of New Zealand made wire rope be investigated by the federation.

The Minister of Marine (Mr Scott) will be asked that, “in view of the unsatisfactory experience with the rope” in both quality and price, the federation be empowered to import Australian wire rope.

In a letter to the Timaru Fishermen’s Co-operative Society, the associate Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr Shelton) said that in the agreement between the Government and British Ropes. Ltd, the parent company of Cooke’s (New Zealand) Wire Rope, Ltcftt it was provided that the domestic wire ropery would have the opportunity

to supply all of New Zealand’s requirements of the common types of round strand wire ropes at a price at least 5 per cent lower than the prices of like wire rope imported from the parent company works "in the United Kingdom. The domestic wire ropery was producing a wide range of wire rope and because of this, no further import licences were being granted for products of the type and size being manufactured by it the letter said.

Commenting on an allegation that the domestic price of wire rope was about 50 per cent dearer than that of the similar imported product, the letter said it was assumed the price comparison had been made with similar Australian wire rope. Part of the difference in price was accounted for by the fact that a full distributive margin was no longer being taken on the Australian product, the letter added.