THE SMALL SHIPMASTER AND THE HARBOR BOARD.

Evening Star, Issue 14511, 1 November 1910, Page 8

THE SMALL SHIPMASTER AND THE HARBOR BOARD.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir—Mr Belcher’s letters are always in teresting, and that whi-h appeared in your issue of the 29th iust. is no exception. Whether one agrees with him or not, a fair-minded person must admire tho fear lessnesa and honesty with which he attacks abases, or what he considers to bo such. At the same time, those actually engaged in any business must necessarily have a knowledge of it. details unattainable by any outsider, however intelligent. In homely phrase, ‘'they feel where tho shoe pinches,” and there are a few facts which I would like to put before Mr Belcher and fhe readers of the ‘ Star.’ Ido so entirely from a shipowner’s point of view. Ihe timber merchants arc quite capable of defending their own position should they consider it to be in danger. Mr Bolcher refers to a circular issued by the late Mr Keith Ramsay. This is very ancient history, but it will servo as a starting-point. At or about that time the freight on general cargo hence to Invercargill was 15s per ton, and on timber from the southern coastal mills to Dunedin 2s 6d per 100 ft. Tho Railway Department made special rates for both these lines, forcing the steamers to drop to 10s and 2s respectively. Incidentally it might be mentioned that under this new tariff, which hj still in force, it is cheaper to rail goods from Dunedin to Invercargill, and rebook them thence to Gore, than to consign them to their destination direct, and this applies to other towns on the southern line. In the same way, it pays better to send timber intended for Mosgiel from Southland to Dunedin, there to bo reconsigned to Mosgiel,. than to scud to Mosgiel direct, which seems anomalous. However, to confino ourselves to timber. At the ordinary tariff rate timber from Southland to Dunedin by rail would pay 3s 9d per 100 f t; the special rate actually charged is 2s 9d per 100 ft. On a low estimate, over eight million feet of timber is railed yearly between these points, so either tho ordinary tariff rate is ridiculously high, or else tho Government are subsidising the Southland timber industry at tho rate of i! 4,000 per annum. How, then, does this rate of 2s 9d compare with the cost of sea carriage? The latter is 2s- per 100 ft, but to this must bo added 2d per 100 ft for sorting, 3(1 harbor dues, and Id for measuring, leaving only a margin of 5d per 100 ft in favor of the steamer—too little to stand any demurrage charge. The railway also has the advantages that only a very limited number of mills can send by sea under any circumstances, and tho extra convenience to the buyer in being able to order timber in small quantities as required, instead of in cargoes of fifty to sixty thousand feet. Owing to this competition, the timber freights from ihe South to Dunedin are lower than those current in any other part of the Dominion. For instance, that from I’elorus Sound to Wellington, a run of seven or eight hours, is 2s 6d per 100 ft; from West Wanganui to Wellington, os; and from Karamea to Wellington, os 6d per 100 ft. These are all short runs, in which steamers of small tonnage aro engaged. The natural retort is: “Why, then, do you continue to carry on business at rates 1 which barely pay expenses?” To this I reply that when capital is converted into plant suited for one particular trade, it is by no means easy to find other employment for it. I might mention that the company I represent have had to buy timber for back loading for more than a year on end and sell it at a loss, or elsoseo the steamers return with empty holds. In this way shipowners are obliged to enter into enterprises foreign to their proper business in order to find work for their vessels. Coming at last to the question of demurrage, here timber merchant and shipowner may join hands. In both casts all that is asked for is that tho Harbor Board allow us a reasonable time in which to shift the timber. We contend that it is absolutely impossible to do so in that at present allotted. Tho timber has to be sorted at the wharf, so that it may be conveniently measured by tho Harbor Board's official measurer, and it takes a good man to_ sort 10,000 ft in a day, after which it still remains to be carted. It does not pay either shipowner or timber merchant to leave timber lying loose at the wharf side exposed to constant pilfering and breakage. They are just as anxious as tho Board to expedite matters, but be-, cause it is beyond their power to remove their goods within tho period fixed by the Board—a period which any practical man would tell them was quite inadequate—they are to be charged demurrage. With all due respect to the Board, timber is not- on tho same footing as general cargo, as has been asserted. No shed room is required or provided for it. It is put across the wharf at the expense of tho steamer, and left unprotected and at owners’ risk until removed. For this the Board make a charge of no lees than 6d per ton per day, while goods can be warehoused in proper premises and protected against thieves and damage by “private enterprise” for from 3d to 4d per ton per week. Mr Belcher has lately written and spoken ably and eloquently on the necessity for fostering our mercantile marine, and this is a case in which he can help to prevent an additional burden being placed on owners who see the cost of running their steamers steadily increasing year by year, while the pressure to reduce their earnings becomes ever greater. —I am, etc., C. F. Sundstbum. October 31.