WASTE OF TEA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 101, 1 May 1945, Page 6

WASTE OF TEA

SHIP AT AUCKLAND

WATERSIDERS CONCERNED

Waterside workers are concerned over what they describe as "the waste of tea" being discharged from a ship which recently arrived in Auckland from an Australian port. The walking delegate of the union, Mr. A. Sinclair, informed a Star representative this morning that so much tea was being wasted by faulty packing and stowage that on behalf of the union he had invited the Chamber of Commerce to send a representative to the ship and see for himself. "The chamber sent one of its members," he said, "and he has promised to make representations in the proper quarter." A reporter who went on board the ship with Mr. Sinclair was taken down one of the holds and also viewed the unloading operations at the other hatches. He was informed that the ship had brought 17,900 chests of tea, each supposed to contain 1001b net. Hundreds of the "cases" were in reality cardboard cartons and the remainder were of light ply-wood. Many of the cases in the hold were so crushed and damaged that the tea had filtered out. The reporter was shown a number of cases that, when taken from the stacks in the holds, contained practically no tea. Other chests were so damaged that tea was distributed from them in all directions by the wind as the cargo emerged from the holds. Mr. Sinclair said that four of the five hatches contained chests of tea many of which had been crushed by their own weight. The result was enormous waste. He estimated that • there would be no less than half a ton of tea wasted. The tea was from Ceylon and had been transhipped at an Australian port. The union had had to put on five men to repair the chests as they were discharged. Some of the cases were so badlv crushed that they were beyond repair. The ship had been discharging since last Sunday night. It was evident that many of the chests had been repaired in Auckland.

"Members of the union get blamed for many things they are not guilty of," said Mr. Sinclair. "In this case we are not responsible for the waste of tea. What we have to bear in mind, however, is that if a man went off the ship with his pockets full of tea taken from the floor of the hold he would be arrested for theft."

He suggested that tea chests should be made half the size and that dunnage should be used in the stowage. When the matter was rererred to the agents of the ship the statement was made that the tea was transhipped from overseas ships in Sydney, and was in bad condition when discharged there. It had to be brought on to New Zealand and the Sydney agents had done everything possible to repair the chests so as to prevent further deterioration and waste on the trip across the Tasman.