WHEAT WAGGONS AT TIMARU

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25738, 25 February 1949, Page 8

WHEAT WAGGONS AT TIMARU

SIDINGS FILLED WITH TRUCKS ACTION BY RAILWAYS DEPARTMENT From Our Own Reporter TIMARU. February 24. Since Tuesday the Railways Department have refused to accept consignments of grain for Timaru stores and mills. This was a temporary suspension, made necessary because grain-laden waggons had been coming in very much faster than they could be handled by mills and stores, so that sidings had become glutted with laden waggons, according to officers of the department. The position this week has been aggravated by the arrival yesterday of the vessel Rivercrest at Timaru with Australian wheat, practically all of which is for Timaru stores. When the vessel is working at full capacity about 90 trucks can be filled daily. Depending on weather conditions the Rivercrest is expected to be in Timaru for at least 10 days. Last night there were 105 waggons under load in Timaru sidings, and earlier there had been as many as 155 Facilities Considered Inadequate The inadequacy of facilities for unloading at local stores and mills was an important factor in the present hold-up. railway officers considered. They said that facilities had hot been improved sufficiently to keep pace with the rapidity of header harvesting. Other factors,, however, have entered into the position this season. The long dry spell in Canterbury caused harvesting everywhere to be at full swing at once with a consequent abnormal influx of grain to mills and Stores. With virtually no ships calling at Timaru recently to load grain for Auckland, mills and stores have been unable to clear their floors. It is understood that labour shortages have also interfered with the capacity of stores. The rain that has fallen in South Canterbury in the last few days may give stores an opportunity to clear waggons by the week-end. While permission has been given to the Transport Department’s Waimate inspector to make extensions to road transport operators’ licences in the district as far north as Pareora to enable grain to be carted to Oamaru, it is understod that no similar extensions have been made in the northern part of South Canterbury. Additional temporary licences have, however, been granted recently for carriage to Timaru.

Anticipating the usual difficulties, Federated Farmers had had discussions with the Railways Department before the harvest to see if anything could be done to alleviate the position, said the secretary of the South Canterbury Executive (Mr A. B. Struthers). It appeared that* Federated Farmers could do little in the present impasse, he said. South Canterbury farmers would be in sympathy with the North Canterbury executive’s protest against Australian wheat ships arriving at Canterbury ports during the peak of the local harvest, he said.