THE HARBOUR BOARD

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 1, 3 January 1910, Page 6

THE HARBOUR BOARD

A combined statement from the secretary (Mr H. E. Nicholls) and the wharfinger (Mr A. V. H. Monro) of the Harbour Board, goes to show that the board is in no way responsible for the situation, but is doing what it can to assist the various brokers. Though-the board lost the "J" shed by fire, it replaced it by a shed of much larger carrying capacity! In addition to this, it was using two large sheds on the King's wharf for railway wool—which is additional accommodation to what there was last year. The past position had arisen-through merchants having more wool sent forward to them than they could handle, through their stores becoming congested. The wool was allowed to lie in the Harbour Board sheds, which are not intended,for that purpose. The board's sheds were railway woolfiheds—for wool railed for shipment and town. The steamer wool is pressed for shipment and the store wool delivered as soon as possible. Orders to deal with wool should be in the board's possession within four hours after receipt of the wool. The board this year had endeavoured to meet the brokers as far a* nossible to relieve the congestion of the stores. It had endeavoured to cope with its work whilst- allowing the wool to remain on the- floor of the stores. Matters came to a climax when the -board saw that if it permitted this to continue it would lose money. The result was that all weal on

trucks for which the board held no orders was handed back to the railway authorities to handle the wool in their own sheds. This notbeing sufficient to ensure good working, a consultation was held on Wednesday and it was decided that as the wool brokers had closed their catalogues for the January sales on Christmas Eve, and the majority of them not having adequate accommodation to deal with the wool for the February sales, and. also because there were 265 trucks on hand, it would be expedient to allow the railways to act as they thought proper. This decision was responsible for the letter sent by the railway .traffic superintendent. The board this year is relieving the brokers to a large extent by exhibiting about 6000 bales of wool for various firms in the board's own premises. It had to be remembered that the railways hauled the wool on Sundays, during night time and on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day—which was the cause of so many trucks being on hand. The board had never previously had such a time with wool as this season. Instead of it being distributed over about three months, it was being squeezed into the city as fast as possible in order to take advantage of the ruling prices. One thing which greatly hindered the board in dealing with the wool expeditiously was the mixed lines sent on one truck. If greater care were taken in this connection by the railways it would facilitate handling at this end. However, the position so far as the boarcr was concerned had now ended, as the brokers had been requested to take their own wools. It also had to be remembered that the board had its ordinary work to perform in addition to handling wool, and it had to keep enough accommodation available for general cargo. •