WELLINGTON WHARF RATES

Evening Star, Issue 15916, 23 September 1915, Page 10

WELLINGTON WHARF RATES

PROPOSED INCREASE. • TOWN v. COUNTRY. [Ter United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, September 22. v At a meeting of the Harbor Board tonight a lengthy and at times lively dislargely on lines of town v.” country, was provoked by a recommendation of the Wharves and Accounts Committee ■that the wharfage on wool and hemp be increased by 3d per bale. The chairman (Mr C. E.' Daniell) moved and Mr R. A. Wright seconded the adoption of the report. ,

In reply to Mr .7. G. Cobbe, the chairman said that work which before the war could he done for £l2 now cost £2O. This was largely due to the increased cost of the steel - bands and studs used in dumping wool and hemp. He had compared the Wellington wharfage charges on wool with those at other New Zealand ports, and, with the exception of Wanganui, where the charges were 3d per bale, the Wellington charges were the lowest of any—4d per bale at the railway wharf, excluding labor. The charges on wool and hemp had not been increased since 1884. Labor then cost 7s per day, but it now cost 11s 4d. In reply to Mr Cobbe, the secretary said that on this year’s figures the increased charge on wool alone would be about £2,000, and on wool and hemp combined £3,260. In replying to a question, the Chairman said the labor cost of handling all goods had increased by about 50 per cent., but owing to the influence of country members wool and hemp had been lightly dealt with in the past, so the committee now proposed to bring wool and hemp up to the general standard.

Mr M. Cohen, protested that it was .the other way round. Other goods had been lightly dealt with, and when the wharfage rates were last revised - other goods were simply put on the same level as-wool and hemp. An _ amendment was carried that the committee’s recommendation be held over till next meeting, and that the committee be asked to report in what direction economies could be effected in the operations of the board.

In the course of the discussion, Mr Harkness contended that the small settler would he hit by increased wharfage charges, as the broker would pay him so much less for his wool.

The Chairman pointed out that the board had spent some £90,000 in buildings and equipping a wool store largely at the instigation of the Woolbrokers’ Committee, yet now those gentlemen were competing with the board.