HARBOUR BOARD CHARGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23083, 8 January 1937, Page 13

HARBOUR BOARD CHARGES

TO XHE EDITOR Sir,—We have had occasion to take out the comparative landing costs at the four main ports. The members of the Harbour Board which we have at present are very complacent about the position in the port of Otago, yet the position as regards inward wharfage charges is as under:— Auckland 2/6 per ton Wellington 3/9 per ton Christchurch .... 7/5 per ton Dunedin 6/- per ton Port Chalmers .... 11/9 per ton The Christchurch charges, of course, include all railage and handling charges. The Port Chalmers charges are actually 13s 9d per ton, reduced to lis 9d through a rebate of 2s per ton graciously made by the shipping companies. Quite 75 per cent, of the raw materials we use is landed at Port Chalmers, and our tonnage runs into big figures. Naturally we are worried at the position, particularly as again our outward coastal charges are likewise infinitely higher than those ruling at the northern ports. Dunedin, because of its geographical position and lack of back country, can only develop through expansion of industry, yet how, under such conditions, can our industries compete throughout the Dominion against their more fortunately placed northern competitors. This unsatisfactory position can be dealt with effectively in only one way —ie., a long view plan to be rigidly kept to, and arrived at only after a verv searching investigation, however costly it may be, by competent financial and engineering experts. Are there not ways and means by which businesslike action in this direction can be forced? —We are, etc., Local Manufacturers. Dunedin, January 7.