English Paper Has Comment On Slow Turn-Round Of Ships

Wanganui Chronicle, 22 July 1950, Page 5

English Paper Has Comment On Slow Turn-Round Of Ships

LONDON, July 21 (Recd. Bpm). “There can be no doubt that the problem of obviating congestion and pre* venting delays nas become, during recent years, one of the most serious which the New Zealand transport industry has to face,” says the “Journal of Commerce?

It comments editorially on the recent annual conference of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand, which urged the Dominion Government to take remedial measures to ensure a. better turn-round of vessels. The journal goes on to say 'that this matter concerns a much wider public, since everyone shipping goods to or from Zealand and everyone buying goods is concerned to a greater or less degree. The longer shipping is delayed in port the more the consumer has to pay for the services of the ships involved. The problem, it continues, is not peculiar to any one country, for in very few ports is the rate of turnround as satisfactory as it was before the war. The principal cause of delays is the slower rate of cargo handling. says the journal.

It continues: “Twenty-four years ago a particular vessel was loaded in Auckland at the rate of 15.2 tons a gang-hour. This rate deteriorated through the years until in 1947 it had been reduced to 7.1 tons a gang-hour. Probably during that period the port’s equipment for cargo handling was improved, and if so the decline in the loading rate becomes even more deplorable. It. would appear, however, either that the workers concerned with that particular loading operation were not paid according to the amount of work they performed or that the rate of payment, was vastly increased; otherwise they and their families would have been on extremely short commons which of course they were not. Shorter working hours without corresponding increases in productivity due to greater effort on the part of the workers or increased mechanisation constitute another cause both of the slower rate of turnround and higher handling costs.

“Inadequate storage facilities away from the wharves have resulted in harbour sheds being used as storage instead of transit sheds, and import, cargoes have been held up because 'there has been no place to Land them. By and large, therefore, a groat deal has to be accomplished before turnround in New Zealand ports can be imnroved.'*