FLAT RATE CHARGES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20705, 1 May 1929, Page 8

FLAT RATE CHARGES.

The letter which has been received by the Gisborne Harbour Board from the head office of the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company on the subject of freight charges in New Zealand ports will be reassuring to the authorities controlling the smaller ports of the Dominion. It expresses the opinion that the danger of differentiation in favour of certain ports to the detriment of others is not such as need he taken so seriously as to J give ground for alarm. The proposal which has been advocated by one or two Harbour Boards, notably by the Wellington

Board, that the flat-rate freight charge should be abandoned has been prompted, of. course, by the desire to secure a concentration of shipping at the larger centres. The matter was discussed at the recent Harbour Boards Conference at Auckland when the representatives of the smaller boards expressed themselves strongly against the idea of any centralisation of the shipment of the primary produce of the country. It is xindeniable that a number of the ports that may be regarded as of secondary importance have been created at a relatively enormous cost and that the existence of some of them is financially uneconomic. But they have been created and they serve a purpose, and it is late in the day, in consequence, to talk- about the centralisation of shipping. If the policy upon which preferential rates would be charged in the . interests of the larger ports were to come into operation the smaller ports, some of them artificial creations, would be very prejudicially affected, and their usefulness would practically disappear. The result would be a heavy embarrassment to various Harbour Boards in the nullification of their efforts to further local progress in catering for shipping, and a serious loss upon the working of their respective, harbours would be the result. The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company says it would be surprised were any legislation introduced with a view to changing the present system under which the smaller ports enjoy the same privileges in respect of the shipment of produce as the larger ones. It may be suggested that the surprise would be very general. Legislation in respect of such a matter should be out of the question. The decision regarding the charges on goods shipped at How Zealand ports is one for the shipping companies, and, if they agree. that there should be no preferential rates, there tbe matter must end. :