OVERSEAS FREIGHTS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 307, 23 September 1926, Page 6

OVERSEAS FREIGHTS

INCIDENCE OF FLAT RATE “AGAINST DOMINION’S INTERESTS” The chairman (Mr. M. Cohen), at last night’s meeting of the Harbour Board, on the recommendation of the Shipping and Charges Committee, moved: "ihat in the opinion of this board the present system of the Hat rate of freight from all ports in the Dominion is wrong in principle, and is most unjust to the main ports providing safe accommodation and modern facilities for handling ships and cargo; that it retains overseas ships on this coast for a much longer period than is necessary; that it prevents quick and regular shipments of our produce; and is generally against the interest of the Dominion. Mr. G. Mitchell said that his interests : n the matter were quite unbiased. New Zealand was up against fierce competition, and it was their duty to face the position. Tie quoted the different charges between two ports in New Zealand to show that great savings in freight could be effected if there were different arrangements in connection with the coastal shipping. If direct service were instituted and the payment of coastal freights were done away with, he believed that a saving of a million pounds a year could lie effected. It was surely time that the Government ook the whole matter up< At the present time there were indications that several ports proposed to borrow, large sums of monev. lie referred to Tima.ru, Oamarti, Napier and Wairoa especially, which levied rates totalling over .£56.000 annually. If the proposals increased the export from the Dominion they might say a good deal in their favour, but he doubted whether they would make any difference. Mr. T. R. Barrer considered the prosent system . was indefensible owing, to the unnecessary delay caused by sending oversea vessels' to ports to pick up small quantities of cargo. Mr. 0. J. B. Norwood considered that the shipping companies worked to a specification, and the Meat Boards and Dairy Board prescribed that cargo should be picked up at ports they chose, although the time would come when coastal shipping would serve the small ports, and the main work of shipping would be carried out at the large ports. It was not Wellington’s matter; it was a New Zealand matter. Captain McArthur thought that there was a good deal in the action of the shipping companies calling at the small ports to pick up cargo. Captain Post considered that the companies would be only too glad for their ships to have a longer stay in a jwrt like Wellington if the matter could bo arranged. Mr. Yl. H. Chapman believed that the time would come when the shipping would be forced to give a preference to the larger ports. He suggested that steps should be, taken to bring about a conference with the shipping companies on the matter.

Mr. T. Moss mentioned that the matter had been one for discussion by the dairy companies in the Wairarapa for years, and representations had been made to the shipping companies without avail. He thought that the railway rates wore somewhat in fault, and it really rested with the people to see that an alteration was made in that respect. Mr. J. G. Cobbe thought it only right that it should be pointed out that three years ago the meat companies entered into an arrangement with the shipping for a flat rate of freight, but competition with the Argentine caused a slight reduction in the rate of freight in addition to an extension of the period. They could not defend a flat rate which gave expensive ports an advantage over ports which were worked cheaply and inexpensively, for such a system was foolish and ludicrous. It seemed to him that it was wrong in principle, and economically unsound. The chairman said that the point of the discussion was not on the interests of the Wellington port only, but was on an economic basis. The shipping companies must be held blameless in the matter; they were purveyors in a great public service, but they could not. be regardless of the necessity for studying the national good. All parochialism must be disregarded and the national, interests only bo regarded, but they could not gainsay the unfairness of the incidence of the flat rate. The motion embodied principles of unassailable fact, and there might bo possibilities of adjusting matters by making secondary charges or something of the sort. De did not favour a conference with the shipping companies so much as a conference with those who paid the freights. The motion was carried.