RAIL FREIGHT

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4812, 19 July 1939, Page 5

RAIL FREIGHT

NEW CHARGES. ADVERSE EFFECTS. HIGH RATES FOR FURNITURE. Now that the new vail freight charges between Auckland-Waikato-King Country were in operation, the effects have been found in some cases to be unfavourable, especially in the case of furniture, which brings goods to the value of about £500,000 annually into the Waikato, according to statements made at a meeting of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce on Monday night. “We have been suffering from the re-action of the amended rates, which have brought increased charges to us in Hamilton,” said Mr. A. Y. Yendell. He said under the old rates goods could be secured from Auckland to Hamilton at reasonable rates, while the cost was more to send goods from Hamilton to Auckland. The freight charges from Hamilton to Te Kuiti had been more than the charges from Auckland to Te Kuiti. “We had hoped for somethingmore equitable with the new rates,” said Mr. Yendell, “although it was anticipated that there would be some increase in freight charges from Auckland to Hamilton.”

Mr. Yendell added that any benefits received from the new scale of charges were offset by the fact that most of the goods received in Hamilton from Auckland were retained here and not forwarded on to the country districts in the Waikato. This had the result that full benefit of the decreased rates to outlyingdistricts was not being felt.

Sixty Per Cent. Up

“I think the freight on furniture from Auckland has increased by 60 per cent.,” said Mr. Yendell, who gave instances of the freight chax-ges on the particular line rising from 7s 5d on the old schedule to 12s under the new scale of charges. In another case a consignment which previously cost 9s was now costing 14s 6d. Mr. P. Reid said furniture had risen from 45s to 83s 6d a ton for freight charges. “I cannot understand why there should be this large increase in furniture freights,” said Mr. Reid, who added that private transport in a firm’s own truck would be less expensive.