DEMURRAGE ON TRUCKS

Manawatu Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 12806, 2 June 1914, Page 8

DEMURRAGE ON TRUCKS

Press Association.—By Telegraph. I)I XKMX, May 31. A deputation representing the contractors and. builders of Dunedin waited on the Prime Minister yesterday, and asked that they be placed on the same footing as coal merchants in respect of demurrage. At present, it appears, coal merchants are allowed two days in which to clear coal from trucks, while building contractors handling sand and gravel have to clear their goods in one day, or pay a charge of IDs a day. <>r, in the further alternative, pay the cost of discharge if the railway authorities undertake it. A further and more serious grievance was that at present coal merchants pay a fixed rate on the actual coal brought for them, while contractors, who may bring in four tons of sand and gravel on a six-ton truck, have to pay rates on six tons, the condition obtaining only In Dunedin. The prime ■Minister expressed his sympathy and his belief that Dunedin contractors would bo put on the same footing us those in other parts of Now Zealand.