SHIPPING SUFFICIENT FOR REQUIREMENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27570, 12 December 1950, Page 8

SHIPPING SUFFICIENT FOR REQUIREMENTS

PA WELLINGTON, Dec. 11. There was enough shipping already engaged in the New Zealand coastal and New Zealand-Australian shipping trades to meet all present requirements, said Malcolm Balgowrie Miller, the managing director of the Union Steam Ship Company, Ltd., in evidence before the Royal Commission into the waterfront industry, Mr Miller said full use of the ships would become possible by improving the tumround speed. “It is sometimes suggested that the provision of more vessels would overcome or greatly lessen shipping delays, but in practice it would render more troublesome the existing congestion of harbour facilities and the shortage of wharf labour,” he said. I cor Jf lc this indicates the country s need for greater use to be made °f the ship which it has available. Mr Miller added that today the lifting capacity of the Union Company s ships was almost'double the 1939 fig ure. On „ l jl e other hand the tonnage of carg .°. 1 ried had increased by only a negligible figure in the same 11 years. Referring to the reliability and regularity of inter-island services, Mr Miller said that because of the uncertainty nt the service from some ports goods were sometimes railed long distances to other ports. He instanced the case of paper produced at mills at Mataura. Instead of being railed only a few miles to Bluff for shipment to the North Island, a substantial quantity was railed a long distance to Picton. He agreed in answer to a question by counsel assisting the commission Mr F C. Spratt, that this practice aggravated the existing shortage of railway W B S e°r I thage and shed space at New Zealand ports today fas inadequate, said witness in reply to Mr T. Bioodworth. Mr Miller considered that harbour boards should be required to provide the necessary facilities.. The shipping companies were providing the Sh Evidence al for Wellington port employers will be called when the cc>mmission resumes on Monday morning.