AUCKLAND PORT CHARGES

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1419, 23 October 1923, Page 5

AUCKLAND PORT CHARGES

COMPARED WITH LIGHT DUES. (By Telegraph.— Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Monday. In the course of an interview upon port charges and light dues, the chairman of the Auckland Harbour Board, Mr H. R. Mackenzie, was reported as having stated that the Government fee of 6d per ton for light dues amounts practically to the total charge in Auckland for all services. This assertion, states the Secretary of the Marine Department (Mr A. D. Park) does not wholly set out the position, and is likely to be misleading. The rate on vessels arriving from overseas, stated Mr Park, is 6d per ton net in respect of first arrival in New Zealand on any voyage, and thereafter Id per ton net in respect ,of each arrival at any port on the coast on the same voyage. Therefore, if an overseas vessel makes Auckland her first and last port of call, as Mr Mackenzie says many vessels do, the total charge made by the Marine Department for light dues in respect of two calls at Auckland would be at the rate of 6Sd per ton for each call. As regards the further statement that the light dues equal the port charges, I would point out that if a vessel from overseas called at, say, eight ports on one voyage to complete discharge and loading the total charge made by the Marine Department for light dues would be at the rate of 9|cl per ton, being 6d for the first port and Id for each of the other ports. On these figures, and those supplied by Mr Mackenzie as the charges imposed by the Auckland Harbour Board the light dues charged at Auckland are by no means equal to the Board's charges, and the total light dues for the voyage represent only a small proportion of the total charges imposed by the various harbour boards.