HARBOR BOARD AND TIMBER COMBINE.

Evening Star, Issue 14512, 2 November 1910, Page 5

HARBOR BOARD AND TIMBER COMBINE.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir, —Captain G. F. Rundslruin, ■writing pr&suznably on behalf of the 1 timlxiT monopoly, is interesting and fa.oeti.oi3S, bnt lie “misses the bus’’'every time. The question is not that of the small shipowner or his profits. That matter will adjust itself. What was stated in clear and distinct words to the Harbor Board was: “That timber could be railed to Dunedin markets cheaper than by water carriage. If that is so the two “ lines of rust,” as Kipling has it, will do the “biz.’ Why waste words about demurrage charges. Sea-borne timber coming here from Westralia and other places in far larger quantities than is operated by the timber combine has to be shifted, or the demurrage tax is imposed. If Messrs Snndstrum, Hogg, and Co. are permitted to break the rule other shippers and consignees must do likewise. Some of the combine have tried to ‘‘beat the pistol,” so far as the Harbor Board arc concerned. Let them try it on the railway and see how they will fare. So far as the mercantile marine is concerned, the writer is right with it, and tries to fester its improvement. But commercialism will have its way, and the timber combine will—if railage is cheaper —shove Captain Sundstrum and his vessel aside with as little compunction as the American scraps an obsolete locomotive, or perhaps in the same manner as the Arbitration Court treat the workers who come along and ask for decent wages. I have heard the tale of the “small shipowner” too often. There was one of them at Auckland, who argued that the glorious climatic conditions of the “Queen City of the North ” entitled him to ask for a reduction of about £4 per month in a man’s wgaes. Captain Sundstrum practically says that his wood deteriorates because it is left out in the wet. Pity the poor timber! But the men who handle the product of the forest can remain in the wet and cold for ever, and nobody cares a straw. I reply: “ Pay up the demurrage, and don't make a song about it. Pay up the same as the wage-earner has lo do for everything lie eats, drinks, and wears.—l am, etc;, W. Bklcukr. November 1.