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A conservative average rate in 1939' for the discharge of timber ships was 10.000 super, feet per hold per hour. To-day the average rate; mechanical unloading devices' notwithstanding, is 5,000 super, feet per hour. The article also contains a number of interesting references to the relation between the slow turn-round of ships and1 the increasing cost of living, and I thinkthat the following extract is very significant : - Timber freight rates to South Africa, whose discharge is- good, is to-day only 21s. per 100 super., ais against 7.8s-. per 100 feet in Australia That information was obtained from a letter received by the Timber Merchants Association in Adelaide from exporters in Sweden, to whom the Australian merchants had complained because Swedish ships were not unloading timber at Port Adelaide. I think that honorable senators will agree that the fact that such a statement should be made by merchants overseas is highly significant and most disturbing. Unfortunately, I think that it must also be conceded that similar criticism can justly be levelled at the rate of cargo-handling in most ports in Australia, and it undoubtedly has a. very direct bearing on the increasing cost of living. The honorable senator alleged that wharf accommodation is inadequate in Port Adelaide. However, on his own; admission, there are thirteen wharfs on the Port Adelaide side of the harbour and five on the Birkenhead side, making a total of eighteen wharfs. Admittedly, there are no sheds on two of those wharfs. However, in addition to the eighteen wharfs mentioned, there are seven wharfs at Outer Harbour, of which one is at present being repaired, and is out of use. Of the 25 wharfs, six are used ordinarily by coastal vessels, and I think that an inspection of the wharfage facilities at Poet Adelaide would dispose of the honorable senator's contention that lack of wharf accommodation is responsible for the delay in clearing vessels. Senator Nicholls conceded that there has been a considerable improvement in the equipment available on the wharfs. Because of the attraction that the waterfront possesses, I frequently visit Port Adelaide. At one time the equipment on the Port. Adelaide waterfront may not have been as good as it could' have been, but it can safely be said that during the last few years it has been improved considerably. Senator Nicholls said that one of the causes of the slow turn-round1 of ships at Port Adelaide was obsolete equipment. The port is now equipped with all modern means of shifting cargo, including fork-lift trucks and cranes, but despite that fact, the rate at which cargo is handled has decreased. The honorable senator said that trucks that were formerly pulled by horses were now pulled by tractors, which were constantly breaking down. I think that that was an exaggeration. From my experience with tractors, I would say that a truck pulled by a tractor is- less liable to damage than is one pulled by a horse. As a result, of my investigations, I. say unhesitatingly that the slow turn-round of ships at Port. Adelaide, is due-