RAILWAY AND PORT

Taranaki Daily News, 8 August 1930, Page 11

RAILWAY AND PORT

METHODS, USED LV COMPETITION.

: : VIEWS OF BUSINESS MAN.' The railways were going to do,a greaft deal of damage to the port, said Mr. McGregor at a meeting of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce last night. Some of them had no doubt received circulars from the railway. • It appeared that the railway obtained the manifests of all vessels coming, into New Plymouth and from the manifests took particulars of the number of consignments coming in. The shipping companies were rather annoyed at this, as they considered the papers as more or less confidential. The railway would then find put the line of goods coming to the firm in the town and would ascertain the measurement, which might be 60 feet and: might cost 9s Cd. The weight of 'the goods might be 7cwt. The railway then went to the importer and said if he had sent’the goods by rail the railage would have been so much and that bjt rail he would have saved a good. deal.. The Railway Department picked put as examples certain lines which suited its

purposes. To compete further with the transhipment of goods from Wellington on certain goods classified as A goods the departmi nt had reduced the rate to the rate for B goods. That meant that railage which had cost 165 s a ton was row reduced to S7s 3d a ton. The department was trying to prove to importers that it was better to send the gocJ by rail, say from Wellington, rather than by boat. The department pointed out the delay in the transhipment of goods. He was not complaining about this, said Mr. McGregor, but he did think it was a serious matter for the port and it should be looked into.

. '‘•‘l have always been opposed ,to the railway having control of the wharf,” he continued. The railway discrimin-, taed unfairly in its charges, in some cases adding on an extra shilling to make it even harder to bring goods by boat. If the goods were taken to New Plymouth by rail the charge to ship them at the port was 8s 7d a ton, which included 3s wharfage. But a man who might lift the goods and take them to Stratford by lorry, instead of sending them by rail was charged 9s 7d a ton. In addition there was the question of storage. Importers were allowed eight hours free from storage charges. It was proposed to allow only eight hours for goods in bond, which was inadequate. At Wanganui four' days free from storage charges had been allowed goods in bond. Often it was impossible to get the papers put through the 'Customs and the railway in time to take the goods out in under eight hours. It came to this, that the chamber would have to support the sheds on the wharf and cut out the railway as far as the town was concerned. In reply Mr. H. J. Lai kin, stationmaster at New Plymouth, said that as regards the circulars being sent to New Plymouth importers, that was purely a business proposition. The Railway Department had merely notified the , mcrchant that he could get his goods a cheaper rate. This had, in one .instance he knew of, made a shipping company reduce its charges. Nobody was forced to send'' his goods by; rap. No reduction had been made by the railway in freights on goods from Auckland and Wellington. The only reductions had been made in the case of overseas goods. As for the extra shilling charge referred to by Air. AlcGregor, it was a tariff charge levied on everyone •but rot applied in cases where goods were going by rail. As for the charge on storage, the eight . hours would bo taken' from the time the papers had been put through, not before. The matter could be referred to the railway committee of the chamber for consideration, said Air. Gordon braser. There were certain small points which no doubt could be cleared up by consultation between the chamber and the Railway Department. At the same time competition was good for everyone. • Tho. chamber referred the matter to tho railway committee.