WORK ON BLUFF WHARVES

Southland Times, Issue 23180, 22 April 1937, Page 4

WORK ON BLUFF WHARVES

RELATIONS SAID TO BE AMICABLE COST OF HANDLING CARGO “The relations between employers and employees on-the wharves at Bluff are very amicable,” said the manager of one shipping agency in Invercargill yesterday, when asked to comment on the remarks of Mr C. G. Macindoe, chairman of the Auckland Harbour Board, about the alleged inefficiency of New Zealand waterside workers. “The waterside employers at Bluff would like to see more tonnage handled an hour, but the Bluff Harbour Board has in hand a scheme tc instal bollards and capstans on the wharves. This will obviate serious delays caused in the shunting by means of horses and engines;” Other shipping agents interviewed stated that the position at Bluff was apparently not so bad as at most New Zealand ports. Discussing the marketing of produce, a man who has made a study of shipping conditions in both Australia and New Zealand said that the New Zealand watersiders often penalized their own Government by not handling goods expeditiously. “The Government has helped to get them higher wages and they should respond to this gesture,” he said. “The cost of handling cargo in New Zealand is out of all proportion to what it is in other countries. These high charges for the handling of cargo naturally caused a high cost of freights and this reduces the profit that can be made out of exports from New Zealand.” The best average rate of discharge in New Zealand was about 12 tons an hour for general cargo and from 15 to 20 tons an hour for produce, another shipping agent stated. The average m Australia was between 40 and 45 tons an hour. The rate of pay in Australia was 2/6 J an hour against 2/8 an hour (ordinary time) in New Zealand.