THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 1929. AN UNFAIR SYSTEM

Wairarapa Age, 22 March 1929, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 1929. AN UNFAIR SYSTEM

Ocean freight carriage is a branch of transport which as definitely needs' . practical attention.' in this country i the co-ordination of railway and motor services on land. At the annual statutory meeting of the Wellington Har-I boar Board this week it was shown | that the whole country is being penal-1 ised to the extent of millions sterling) a year by the preposterously unjust system under which oversea liners are required to waste time and incur risks picking up small parcels otf produce at lighterage port? and roadsteads. According to Mr G. Mitchell, a member of the Wellington board, over £2,000,000 is added in this way to the inward and outward freight charges paid annually by the people of the Dominion. The Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) has intimated that the Government will do nothing in the direction of concentrating oversea ships at the larger ports, but on what grounds this decision has reached it is difficult to imagine. The present system is not only unjust to those who are served by the larger ports, but adds needlessly to the total transport costs; of the Dominion. It seems impossible to doubt that important all-round economies would be effected if the produce now loaded into linerp at roadstead and similar ports were conveyed to the main ports by land or by coastal steamers..

Failing the treatment of this prob- , lem from a national standpoint, it may be worth considering whether the Wellington Harbour Board and others similarly placed are not in a position to secure direct redress. From time to time, for instance, the Wellington board has been enabled, by improvements in organisation, equipment and working methods, to reduce its charges to shipping companies and to those who ship or receive goods. As a matter of equity, .the board plainly would be justified in concentrating these benefits solely on the owners of cargo, to the exclusion’ of shipping compan- , ies. Whether such a policy is feasible, we do not know, but it is obvious that the system of flat rate oversea freights under which big ships are required to waste weeks in tramping round the coasts not only is serious unjust in its detail incidence, but is from a national standpoint extremely wasteful and improvident.