World’s Swiftest Port

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 77, Issue 6977, 13 October 1948, Page 4

World’s Swiftest Port

Adding to its glory as Europe’s “V port”, through which during the last stages of the war amunition and equipment flowed to the front lines under a shower of Vi’s and V2’s, Antwerp is now contending as the world’s swiftest port. More than 12,500 tons of iron ore were unloaded from a ship recently in eight hours 20 minutes—a,n average speed of 1500 tons an hour. The Antwerp harbour authorities say this definitely consitutes a world record.

Groceries and Exchange Rate The return of the exchange rate to par is not likely to have any marked effect 'on grocery prices, according to the New Zealand Grocers’ Review. The journal says it has been estimated that 65% of a grocer’s turnover is not affected by the exchange rate, and that the greater portion of the remaining 35% is affected only to the extent of imported ingredients or components. In any case, no reduction in prices can be expected until existing stocks have been disposed of.

Building Supplies In spite of intensive efforts by his office, bottlenecks in the supply of building materials continued to occur through shortages of shipping, raw materials, coal, and labour, said the Commissioner of Works (Mr E. R. McKillop) in his annual report submitted to Parliament recently. The need to limit overseas purchases to the sterling area had restricted the availability of materials to some extent. Through overseas purchases and increased production within the Dominion, it was considered that material supplies could be maintained for the current year. Invention Kills Inventor

Opposing a recommendation providing for the use of metal studs instead of painting on pedestrian crossings for road marking,, the Auckland pedestrian traffic superintendent, at a Dominion traffic conference held in Auckland, said he believed the inventor of metal studs slipped on one in Paris and was run over and killed. In overseas centres it was found that constant traffic wore the studs razorsharp. Delegates decided, however, to ask for the provision of metal studs as an alternative to painting, the difficulty of obtaining suitable paint at a reasonable cost being emphasised.

Taxing of State Departments The taxing of State trading departments, in particular the State Hydroelectric Department, was defended by Mr R. Semple in a message to the Power Boards and Supply Authorities’ Association conference in Dunedin. The message was presented to a meeting of engineers and secretaries by the general manager of the State Hydro-electric Department. “Taxation is imposed to provide a share of the national income and of production for carrying on State activities”, said Mr Semple’s message. “If any portion of the national income is accumulated, the tax burden that remains is correspondingly increased. Private enterprise is subject to taxation, and if State production or trading concerns were free of tax the amount to be obtained from private enterprise would be greater. Those are the reasons why it is Government policy that State production should be taxed”.