FASTER DISPATCH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21946, 14 February 1946, Page 5

FASTER DISPATCH

OVERSEAS VESSELS CONTRACT SYSTEM TALKS NEW 12,000-TON SHIPS (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Feb. 13. Comment on a number o£ matters affecting the New Zealand overseas shipping trade was made by Mr. Basil Sanderson, managing-director of the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, and president of the International Shipping Federation, on the eve of his departure from the Dominion. He will leave Auckland by flyingboat to-morrow for Sydney en route to Britain. Mr. Sanderson said he understood the question of all-in contract rates was shortly going to be discussed between the waterfront employers and .the unions in the hope of reaching some agreement. The all-in contract system is based on the principle that workers are given a share in the control of their industry. ' The quicker we can get ships turned around the smaller number of these vastly-expensive units we shall have to build,” he commented. Speaking on the effect of the import restrictions on freight charges, Mr. Sanderson said it was obvious that the smaller volume of outward cargo from the United Kingdom meant that more ships in ballast had to be sent to New Zealand to load homeward freights, which, therefore, had to pay for the round voyage. The refrigerated ships of his company's 12,000-ton Waiwera class had proved so successful, said Mr. Sanderthat the line’s new ships would be built to the same dimensions. Four ships now in preparation would, however, be provided with high-class accommodation for GO or 70 passengers, compared with 12 carried by the Waiwera class. The construction of any large liners, he said, was not immediately contemplated by the -company.