PORT OF WANGANUI

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 413, 3 November 1930, Page 6

PORT OF WANGANUI

DAIRY PRODUCE SHIPMENTS A WELLINGTON REPORT Under the caption “Port of AVanganui,” the following was published in the Evening Post of Saturday last: “Considerable haziness appears to exist in the minds of some members of the Legislature as to shipment of dairy produce from the Port of AVanganui. That being so, it is not to be womlered at that some farmers shoul I labour under a misapprehension as to where the shipping companies stand in this matter, especially as there have been suggestions made of ‘boycotting AVan ganui’ and ‘grabbing by Wellington/ The matter was ventilated in the House of Representatives last week when one Minister cf the Crown went so far as to suggest that the Dairy Board appeared to have launched an organised attack on AVanganui. “The attitude of the overseas ship ping companies towards loading dairy produce at AVanganui, or anywhere else, so far as ‘The Post’ has been able to ! ascertain, is dictated solely by business principles. But it appears to be felt by some of the representatives of the shipping companies that much misrepresentation with regard to the shipping of dairy produce at the Port of AVanganui needs clearing up. Mu ’i loose talk had been given the appearance of fact, and probably accepted as fact. Jt had been said that the shipping companies had boycotted the Port of AVan ganui. From inquiries in shipping circles it was learned that any suggestion of boycott was utterly untrue; it was equally untrue to suggest that the overseas companies had absolutely pro hibited the shipping of dairy produce at the Port of AVanganui. “The position really is that at the time (1924) the contracts were entered into between the Dairy Board and the overseas shipping companies there wore certain dairy factories contiguous to AVanganui which shipped their produce through that port. But if there was no ship suitable for loading dairy produce at AVanganui, then the overseas shipping companies paid coastal freight oji such produce to connect with the overseas vessels at AVellington.

‘‘The present position, it was explained, has been brought about by no action of the shipping companies hut by the AVanganui Harbour authorities themselves. They secured from a syndicate cool stores in AVanganui, formerly the property of the AVanganui Meat Com pany. In order to increase the quantity of dairy produce passing through those stores and to make them a payable proposition, the AVanganui Harbour Board instituted an active, canvass for dairy produce for overseas export, from dairying areas well beyond AVanganui. inducing shipments from as far away as Danncvirße and AVoodville, the produce of dairy factories which in the ordinary course was ami would bo shipped through the Port of AVellington. The reasons generally assigned to this seeking shipments beyond the AVanganui radius were geographical in that, it was stated, such districts were (doser to AVanganui than to AVellington.

“But what was ignored was the im portant fact that loading was increased at a roadstead port where the facilities for loading had never been adequate to meet such an increase, and therefore the coastal freights which the shipping companies had to pay from AVanganui were automatically increased. At the same time, the difficulty in despatch of vessels urgently required for the lifting of the produce of the Dominion as a whole was accentuated by delays at AVanganui. “AVhen it came to the question of the new contract between the Dairy Board and the shipping companies this point was raised, and a provision was made in the new contract that,

With a view to avoiding unnecessary steaming and loss of time, the board and the shipping companies undertake to do their best to minimise the calls of vessels at loading ports.

“It is the object of the companies in the interests of efficiency that programmes shall be so arranged that any particular ship shall not call at more ports than arc absolutely necessary. This proposal was agreed to and the shipping companies then represented to the board that to enable these comli tions to be operative some assistance must bi' given to the shipping companies by aiinimising loadings in roadstead ports. The board realise the importance of this point, on it being explained that work at a roadstead port had been increased at AVanganui by the diversion of produce from a main port to a roadstead port, therefore, to meet the position, the board agreed to the insertion of the following clause:

The shipping companies will not lift dairy produce by direct loading from the Port of Wanganui, nor will they pay coastal freight ’ thereon, other than dairy produce from those factories which shipped through Wanganui at the commencement of the New Zealand Dairy Produce Board’s first contract with the shipping companies commencing on November 1, 1924. The provisions of this clause shall not apply to dairy produce from butter and/or cheese factories built after November 1, 1924, in the proximity of Wanganui.

“'rhe effect of this clausp is merely to stop the unwarrantable diversion of dairy produce from AVellington to AVanganui above referred to; hut it still permits, as hitherto, the shipment by liners at AVanganui, or failing such op portunitics. the coasting from Wanganui to AVellington at the expense of the overseas shipping companies, of the out puts from factories which shipped through AVanganui prior to November 1. 1924, in addition to the produce of any now faotorips built after that, date in the proximity of the Port of AVan ganui. ’ ’