PORT DUES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23516, 2 June 1938, Page 12

PORT DUES

PAYMENT BY CRUISE LINERS NO PREFERENTIAL SCALES INVITATION TO EMPRESS OF ' BRITAIN (Special to Daily Times) CHRISTCHURCH, June 1. The dues which tourist cruise ships have to pay when they visit New Zealand -ports were explained by the chairman, Mr R. T. McMillan, at a meeting of the Lyttelton Harbour Board to-day. Mr McMillan said that the charges payable at Lyttelton should not deter any large tourist cruise ship from visiting the port. He referred to a recent report from Auckland on the money value of tourist cruise ships which appeared in the press. This report, he said, made reference to the large amounts spent in the North Island and the heavy dues, including lighthouse dues, paid by these vessels. As many readers of that report might infer that the reference to dues applied to the dues collected by harbour boards, he thought it appropriate to say a word or two of explanation, particularly in reference to a vessel as large as the Empress of Britain, which the board hoped might be brought to Lyttelton next year. The main policy of harbour boards in dealing with tourist ships was really controlled by the Harbours Act, which expressly forbade a differentiation in harbour dues. It would be manifestly unfair to differentiate in favour of tourist cruise ships. He was not at liberty to criticise the heavy lighthouse dues which had to be paid by these vessels visiting, perhaps, only one or two ports, but it would interest board members to know the dues paid for, say, the Empress of Britain, or the Strathnaver, or the Orion. The Empress of Britain (22,545 tons) would pay at the rate of 6d a ton for the first port, making a total of £563 12s 6d, and at .one halfpenny a ton for the second port, involving £46 19s 4Jd. The Strathnaver figures would be £334 17s 6d and £27 18s lid for her 13,395 tons, and the Orion’s dues £352 9s and £29 7s Sid for her 14,098 tons. At Lyttelton the dues for, say, three days for the Empress of Britain would be £IOO (the minimum charge for pilotage and port charges), plus towage attendance. £l4, and berthage at id a ton, as well as other minor charges. The board was in communication with the agent of the Canadian Pacific Railways, the owners of the Empress of Britain, in an endeavour to have this ship come to Lyttelton and the South Island next year.