BERTHING DELAY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19970, 3 July 1930, Page 11

BERTHING DELAY.

• —— MARAMA AT LYTTELTON. ® HARBOUR BOARD REPORT. V . 7 Commenting on the statements that t tho Marama, running on the ferry ser--3 vice, had been delayed on tho morning ' of Juno 11th when there was a southj west gale blowing and wintry oondij tions prevailed, by the delay in the ! tug not being available, the chairman | of the Lyttelton Harbour Board (Mr H. Holland. M.P.) tabled the report of the harbourmaster at the meeting of the Board held yesterday. " "It has been freely reported,'' stated j the report, "that the passengers on the Marama failed to connect with tho south express through the tug not being available to assist in her berthing. This vessel could not have been at her berth before 8.25 a.m«, even in the best of circumstances, and taking the conditions into account, even with the assistance of the tug, I would estimate a further ten minutes addition, making it 8.35 a.m. to be tied 1 up. Given fifteen minutes to land > passengers and their luggage and the , journey to tho City another 15 minutes, the very earliest theiy could have been in town was 9.5 a.m. Tho ; express leaves Christchurch at 8.35 a.m. "The main cause of delay was because the Rangitata took us nearly an hour to heave her to her berth with lines, having the weight of the tug and ship's anchor to drag home (both necessary to hold the vessel's head to the wind). As no damage was done I consider it advisable to broadcast this matter." 1 The chairman said that from the report the Board would see that tho Marama's passengers would not have been able to connect with the express even had the tug' not been detained with the Rangitata.