PILOTAGE DUES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22195, 23 February 1934, Page 8

PILOTAGE DUES

THE AUCKLAND REDUCTION PROTEST BY BRITISH. COMPANIES (Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, February 22. In the course of a statement concera« irig the recent decision of the Auckland Harbour Board to reduce the pilotage dues charged against entering the port representatives pf certain leading shipping companies say:;, "It has generally been agreed that the dues charged at Auckland have been on the high side. As a helpful suggestion representatives of the companies asked that if there were to be brought into force any remissions of the pilotage dues these should be made general and distributed equitably over all the shipping entering the port. In the end it appeared that the board had been stampeded into bringing about a reduction that was, to a large extent onesided, favouring certain types of shipping and giving no benefit to others. It may be pointed out that, of 297 ships that paid pilotage dues last year,. 103 were under the minimum limit-of 4800 tons and would not benefit by the reductions. On the other hand such .lines as the Matson Line reap the highest benefit, as, although their ships come into Auckland as many as 13 times a year, on only six visits will they be charged pilotage dues under the new arrangement. This means that they will enter the port seven times with complete freedom from dues, the total benefit per annum being £4BOO. . ' •■ "Looked at from another point of view, this means on last year's figures," the statement concludes, "that whereas a million and a-half net tonnage, ofshipping, most of which is British, will get the advantage of a rebate amount--ing to 1.4 d a ton, a quarter of a million net tons of foreign shipping will benefit by as much as 4.0 d a ton. The total pilotage fees paid by the Matson Line last year amounted to £5730. The board received £32,000 in pilotage fees from all the companies, numbering 14, whose ? vessels visited the port."