PRODUCE SHIPMENTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1082, 20 September 1930, Page 13

PRODUCE SHIPMENTS

POSITION AT WANGANUI EXPLAINED MR. J. HINE’S STATEMENT Press Associatioyi NEW PLYMOUTH, Friday. Exception to a statement reported by the Press Association to have been made in the House of Representatives by the Minister of Agriculture in reply to a question from Mr. J. T. Hogan (Independent—Rangitikei) regarding the shipping company’s refusal to load certain dairy produce on the steamer lonic at Wanganui, is taken by Mr. James Iline. who for some months has been acting-chairman of the Dairy Produce Board. The report attributed to the chairman of the board a statement that it was not the board that was responsible but the shipping company, which insisted on conditions in the contract,- one of which was that Wanganui should not be a port of loading. Mr. Hine states that the Wanganui Harbour Board, which also controls the cold stores there, has been giving special inducements in order to divert certain dairy factories’ produce to Wanganui, and as at the same time the board increased ships’ dues the shipping companies naturally concluded they were not only being forced to contribute indirectly to the cost of this diversion, but were also in some cases incurring payments for coastal freight which would have been avoided had produce been loaded at Wellington. They therefore insisted that under the new contract produce would only bo accepted for shipment at Wanganui from those factories which had been shipping from there prior to November 1, 1925, or produce from dairy factories erected in the vicinity of Wanganui since that date.