WOOL AND WELLINGTON.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1803, 20 December 1912, Page 4

WOOL AND WELLINGTON.

CONGESTION DENIED. "WE CAN HANDLE IT." At Wednesday's meeting of the Wellington Harbour Board Mr J. Cobbe said he had noticed some statements in reference to the diffi- • culty of handling wool. Country people were a little anxious about it, and he asked what was the position. The chairman, Mr R. Fletcher, said the country districts, more especially Feilding, need not feel any alarm. The board was quite able to take the wool. The reason for the trouble was that the shipping companies did not know their business. The Harbour Board had during the last ten days been doing something it had not done for years; namely, dumping wool up to 10 and 11 o'clock at night. If the shipping companies would show a little business management in getting the wool away the trouble would not have arisen. There were 20,000 bales of wool in the J shed, and no vessels to take the stuff away. One vessel only took forty to fifty bales, whereas she ■hould have taken 5000. "Send ' your wool along, and we can handle it,'' he said. The Railway Department had become somewhat irritated, anil they had sent instructions to the country stations not to take any more wool, because they believed the board could not take it. But there was plenty of room to take the wool. "We want the ships to get it away. The lonic is coming here to take 8000 or 4000 bales. The Rimutaka is filling up with butter and cheese and shutting wool out. If the vessels came here to take the wool instead of tripping all round the coast it would be far better." WOOL NOT PAID FOR. Mi- Harkness said that in 1904-5 the' board was handling more wool than it did to-day. He thought that in those years it handled 20,000 to 22,000 bales of wool at one time. To-day, with more appliances, it should be able to handle the lesser quantity with more expedition. The last wool gale in Wellington was held on December f»th, and that wool would not be paid for till fourteen days after the sale, and in consequence the wool had to be held here. It was no use the ships coming to get the wool unless it was paid for.

The chairman said that in 1904-5 there might have been more wool coming down, but it was spread over a large number of days. In the present instance the whole of the wool came down at once. The congestion had, however, now been relieved, and country people could be assured that the board was quite able to handle their wool.