WELLINGTON PORT’S RECORD YEAR

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3493, 1 November 1926, Page 5

WELLINGTON PORT’S RECORD YEAR

AT/SO RECORD EOR DOMINION,

Remark wew made by the chairman of the Wellington Harbour Board (Mr Maurice Cohen) at last week’s meeting upon the most satisfactory result of the past twelve months’ working, and upon the very gratifying financial position of the port. Mr Cohen aiso remarked upon statements made at a recent meeting of the Wanganui Harbour Board in regard to tho comparative costs of working overseas vessels at main and smaller ports wherein it was suggested that Wellington’s objection to the vessels calling at smaller ports was engendered by the fact that Wellington was feeling the effect of Wanganui’s competition. That such a statement was entirely due to a misapprehension, said Mr Cohen, was shown by tho figures for tho twelve months just ended, for not only a Wellington record but a record for the whole Dominion had been established. Commenting upon the statistics for the month of September, the chairman remarked that there was a marked increase in the total registered tonnage, 250,548 tons, as compared with the figure for September, 1925, 182,341 tons, an increase of 68,207 tons. So also there was a big increase in the total cargo handled, 154,065 tons, as compared with 113,881 tons of September. 1925.

The main items shown In the table, the figures for September of last year being shown in parentheses, were:—General cargo, imports, 54,606 tons (48,396); exports, 21,293 tons (16,841); timber. Imports, 1,541,094 super feet (2,384,780): exports, 46,126 super feet (105,1811; coal, imports, 15,483 tons (12,502); oils in bulk, 13,192 tons ( —); exports, 3359 tons (7752); wool and hemp shipments, 6682 bales (5221); butter, 382 tons (172); cheese, 1382 tons (9); frozen meat, 2720 tons (3666). Fast Handling and Record Figures. The statement made at Wanganui that the port of Wellington had been embarrassed by Wanganui’s operations, said Mr Cohen, was surely due to a misapprehension, and the figures ho had before him would satisfy anyone, of the futility of such an observation.

"During the twelve months just ended,” he said, “very good work had been effected in the quick dispatch of vessels. Numbers of steamers with mixed cargoes from overseas have discharged over 1000 tons per day. The Rotorua, from London, with 3744 tons, averaged 1463 tons per day, and the Rcmuora and Maimoa, from the same port, averaged 1287 tons and 1219 tons per day respectively. The Canadian Spinner, from Halifax, averaged 1407 tons per day, and tho Tahiti, from San Francisco, 1457 tons per day. Coastal vessels with cargoes of cement regularly averaged from 1000 to about 1500 tons per day, the best being the Kaimanawa, from Portland, which discharged 1542 tons in one day. “Tho not. tonnage • of shipping arrivals for the year shows a marked increase, the figures being 3,428,155 tons, as against 3,080,340 tons last year. This is a record for the port, tho next highest year being 1915, when tho tonnage reached 3,153,071 tons.” It will be noted that the tonnage of shipping arrivals is given in net tons. Were the figures taken on the gross basis, they would show a considerable increase. Finances Very Sound. The financial position of the port, continued the chairman, was very sound, and notwithstanding the fact that during the last twenty-two years the port had passed through its most active developmental ora and notwithstanding tho many important assets which had been added, the board to-day had a lighter indebtedness than it had in 1904. The total loan indebtedness was then £850,000, but the accumulated sinking fund against that consolidated £850,000 amounted to £364,261. Loans of £250,000 and £150,000 were issued in 1920 and 1925, tho sinking fund now standing at £19,029 and £3128 respectively, so that tho total accumulated sinking funds were £386,418, reducing the total loan indebtedness to £817,382. “In spite of the developments of the past twenty years,’ ’concluded Mr Cohen,- “the additional equipment purchased, wharves extensions and improvements and reclamations, our total indebtedness is to-day much below what it was in 1904. To say the least of it, this is an extraordinarily satisfactory position.”