SHIPMENTS FROM LYTTELTON

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25250, 31 July 1947, Page 6

SHIPMENTS FROM LYTTELTON

DELAYS DISCUSSED 'BY HOUSE

MINISTER REPLIES TO QUESTION

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, July 30. A total of 11,000 tons of cargo for Auckland would be loaded from Lyttelton during the next two or three weeks, said the Minister of Supply (Mr A. H. Nordmeyer), replying in the House of Representatives to-day to a question asked earlier by Mr w. H. Gillespie (Opposition, Hurunui) about shipping delays The Minister said his attention had been drawn to the back-log of coastal cargo awaiting shipment at Lyttelton. Available shipping was being used to the maximum possible extent. In addition to the cargo tor Auckland to be loaded in the next two or three weeks, other vessels would be loading at Lyttelton for North Island ports other than Auckland in the same period. “It is not practicable Under present circumstances, to prevent back-logs of cargo accumulating at certain ports from time to time, although every effort is being made to reduce these to a minimum, the Minister said. Mr Gillespie said there were 80.000 sacks of produce at Lyttelton awaiting shipment to the North Island, 200.000 sacks of potatoes; in Canterbury alone, awaiting a means of transport, and thousands of sacks of bran and pollard urgently needed In the north. The Wheat Committee was having difficulty in shifting supplies i because of the slovf turn-round of ships.

“Consumers in the North Island are erying aloud for all this produce," he , said. I