MARATHON SITTING OF TANKER INQUIRY

Northland Age, Volume XVIII, Issue 38, 15 February 1949, Page 3

MARATHON SITTING OF TANKER INQUIRY

Opposition to Application Heard

* On Friday, the third and final day of the sitting of the No. 1 Transport Licensing Authority was .held in Kaikohe. Th e sitting commenced at 9.30 a.m. and sat through until 11.35 p.m. with only a break of one hour for lunch. Mr. Nicholls representing the Kaitaia Dairy Co. Ltd., and the Mangonui County Council in relation with the Awanui Harbour Board, opened the case for those parties who were making objection to the granting of licenses sought.

He said that the oil companies had not proven their case, but had merely taken the wording of the Act and covered it with a good deal of advertising and misleading phrases. “I submit,” Mr. Nicholls said, “that although modern, the tanker system of road delivery is not best suited to | the needs or adequate for the require•j ments and that it would be destrucI tive to the ships and to the whole | prosperity of Mangonui County. “I don’t think I can ever remem- | her having been involved in any l:rij bunal in which so many mis-represen-tations and mis-statements have been made. | “With the exception of the railways j witnesses, there were such glaring examples of mis-representation that I feel that some, at learst, of them must have been deliberate. “We have had to waste time strug- | gling with witnesses to get answers to questions which they did not want to answer and I suggest that that vas because they had infoi’mation t.iey did not want to disclose. “The oil companies either do not know 7 or are unwilling to state the capital outlay on this scheme, which is a duplicate service ; they cannot tell operational costs ; nor can they tell the cost to the consumer,” he stated. Mr. Nicholls claimed that he represented the bulk of the people of the Mangonui County. No one yet had been produced from the County, other than resellers of petrol, to support the oil companies’ tanker applications. The Mangamuka Gorge road was steep, winding and narrow—a poor road for transportation of passengers and goods. “There are four East Coast ports— Parenga, Houhora, Awanui and Mangonui—none with bars, all of them all-weather ports and in use by ships now in service,” he stated. “There is hardly a part of the country outside a radius of 20 miles from one of these ports. “The whole of the county’s economy is based on the fact that its goods come in and go out by water. It is an area of purely primary industry and, I think, it is safe to say that there are no secondary industries. “The County’s progress depends almost entirely on the production and marketing of butter. If anything should reduce the price of the farmer’s butter, then that is a bad thing for the County since the farmer has less money to spend. “If the reduction is caused by high freights, the farmer is hit both ways —he has less money to spend on high-er-priced goods.” Mr. Nicholls recalled the shifting of the Kaitaia dairy factory from Kaitaia to Awanui in 1925, owing to road transport difficulties. The butter, he said, went from the factory by gravity straight into the ship’s hold at a temperature of about 40 degrees. Experience had shown that this temperature was affected by only one percent in the trip to Auckland. The dairy company had over 000 suppliers, and, taking an average of live or six persons to each farm, the dairy company could be said to represent a very 7 large proportion of the population, “If the boat should go off, I could just pack up and leave Northland, and so could a great many other people,” Mr. Nicholls averred. “The boat is absolutey vital to the prosperity of the County.” He contended that if freights were taken away there would be a very grave danger of the boats being taken off. Mr. A. M. Theed, engineer to the Mangonui County Council and the Awanui Harbour Board, said he had tried the tanker service for petrol but had reverted to the shipping service per drum. The drums were more convenient - when required for outside work, and petrol was cheaper by drum than by tanker. He said the harbour board needed all of its wharfage revenues amounting to ±'Boo to enable it to carry on. Mr. L. A. Mclntosh then went on the stand, there spending some four

hours of rigorous questioning. As h stepped down, the Authority cong-rat ula.ed him upon his very exceller evidence, upon his demeanour, thruth fulness, frankness and general help fulness. He said that his company cons id ered sea transport was the very life blood of the district, inasmuch as i took all the exports out and all th imports in. Mr. Mclntosh was definite, even af ter the Authority had reminded hln of sworn evidence to the conti i y that no reduction of Id per gallon ii the price of petrol to the consume took place in Kaitaia after the tank ers started deliveries. He contended there could have beei no reduction because a differential o: 6d a gallon had obtained since. April whereas the tankers began service ir October. Also, the differential foi tankered petrol was, even now, Gc a gallon. He said that the dairy company sold 54,000 gallons annually per drum, and only 24,000 gallons per pump. These comments drew remarks of amazement from the Authority that there could be so many large consumers in the area. To Mr. Ross, Mr. Mclntosh admitted that the Kaitaia and Hokianga Dairy Companies had financed Mr. Frankham after a sea disaster some years ago. Mr. Ross compared Frankham’s prices for carrying boxes of butter from Auckland to various East Coast ports. Mr.Mclntosh agreed with Mr. Ross that the Kaitaia company, which had a turnover of £75,000, would not be stuck fo r transport of its goods if the boat went off. He admitted that he also had a little to do with” the Northern Cooperative Carrying Company, formed in 1940, through the activities and interest of the dairy company. He further admitted that this company had the sole agency in the area for Europa petrol, all of which was

carried there by sea in drums. Discussion next dealt with the proposed dried-milk factory at Awanui, which would give Frankham another 260 or 270 tons of freight worth £7OO a year. Mr. Haigh asserted that Mr. Frankham had been responsible for the gazetting of the notice making the tanker system in the North a goods service under the Act. “Mr. Frankham does not come under jurisdiction of the Transport Act. He can cut his rates ; he can put on or take off ships as he pleases. “And yet this man Frankham, who cannot be interfered with, comes along and says, ‘We are going to interfere with operations of the oil companies.’ “He gets the Minister to stop the oil companies,” Mr. Haigh added. The shipping companies, he said, had been extremely fortunate in that the last 10 years they had been given a 25 pei-cent subsidy and a 50 percent increase in freight rates. Also, the ralway’s competition had been eliminated as a result of their clamouring. Saying that if the boats came off it should not be beyond the intelligence of the community to run its own service, Mr. Haigh remarked • “Forget about shedding tears for the Frankham and Northern Steamship companies. If they cannot withstand the competition of three oil companies, they should retire from the field.” To Mr. Nicholls. Mr. Mclntosh said ihe carrying company’s connection with Europa was no part of the dairy company’s decision to oppose the lpplication. Mr. A. G. Frankham, managing director of A. G. Frankham, Ltd., gave ; evidence that loading into Hokianga was about 60 percent of capacity, ou' of Hokianga, about 40 percent. • The average loss for the Hokianga service over the past four years had been 886 annually. Last year’s loss had been £ISOO, 1 which included costly renovations and repair work required by the ship sur- ! veyors in their four-yearly review. “I am very pessimistic on this matter,” he said. “I think that, in time, the tanker service will get the whole j of the trade and the boats will get nothing,” he said. The penny difference in the petrol differential from Okaihau to Broadwood and to Kohukohu, the distances being only one mile different, was a definite attempt to squeeze Everything from the boat. Mr. Frankham said that, if he had. to put up his freight rates to compensate for the loss of the petrol cargoes, the dairy company at Motukaraka might b e placed in the oosition of having t 0 rail its butter to Auckland. Today’s replacement value of his

ships was between £60,000 and £75000. Two were now written tiown in his books to £3OOO lind £4OOO. ® The Authority reserved his decision, and immediately after the tribunal rose, left for Whangarei.