HARBOUR YEAR—BIGGER SHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 130, 28 November 1929, Page 8

HARBOUR YEAR—BIGGER SHIPS

In prevailing circumstances a decrease in the coal handled on Wellington wharves was to be expected, but the falling off in oil revealed by the figures produced at last night's meeting of the Wellington Harbour Board seems to have rather puzzled some of the board's members. Probably the figures for one year have not much bearing on the ultimate issue of the "triangular. duel" between coal, oil, and harnessed water. In these days of,big importations, the trend of business can be better tested over a longer period. Generally speaking, the Harbour Board year (to 30th September) seems to show an increase of imports and a decrease of exports, leaving figures of handled cargo much as they were. But the ships that carried the goods increased in tonnage by 101,265, or 2.8 per cent. And the ships are also steadily increasing in individual size, the average net tonnage of arriving vessels having risen from 1006 tons in 1923-24 to 1196 tons in 1928-29. If the superior economy in sea-car-riage of the big ship is recognised to the extent that authorities like Professor J. H. Biles have anticipated, progressive harbour boards who have attended to deep water berthage will more and more profit by their enterprise. The board's figures of wool, hemp, butter, cheese, and meat, all show decreases except cheese. It is important to Wellington in particular, as well as to New Zealand, that the cheese industry should hold its own, and the experiment in marketing standardised cheese is one of peculiar interest.