COASTAL FREIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 115, 16 May 1936, Page 13

COASTAL FREIGHTS

COST TO DAIRY INDUSTRY

(By Telegraph.) ; (Special to the "Evening Post.") NEW PLYMOUTH, May 15. Only two ports, Patea and Wanganui, are seriously affected in connection with the proposed extra charge .on freights for dairy produce. They export well over 40,0p0 of the total of 50,000 tons shipped coastwise. ■ In effect, the extra cost of coastal shipping to main ports for loading on overseas ships is a charge of about 4s a ton on the whole of the Dominion's dairy produce output.and it.is imposed so- that dairy producers living far from main ports shall not be at a disadvantage in comparison with the general body of producers. The overseas shipping ■ companies' contracts with the New Zealand Dairy Board provide that coastal freights from main ports must be paid by the overseas shipping companies themselves, and it is presumed that the shipping companies simply add the.extra cost to contract prices, so that in the long run the whole dairy industry bears the burden. The advantage received by the shipping companies is that they do not have to send their ships to small ports- to be loaded by lightering or other means. ~