DELAYS AT LYTTELTON

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26515, 1 September 1951, Page 3

DELAYS AT LYTTELTON

Sir.—The loading of vessels in Lyttelton from railway waggons is being held up daily, often for hours at a time, through the inexcusable carelessness of the Railway Department’s clerical staff in not sending waybills with goods consigned to-Lyttelton for shipment. In spite of repeated complaints to the station master at Lyttelton, and the district traffic manager in Christchurch. no improvement is being made.

Headlines in the daily papers comparing work done by waterside labour in the various ports make it appear that Lyttelton is a long way behind Auckland in tonnage handled. This is. no doubt, a fact, but it is not the fault of the men working the ships; it is the definite fault of railway clerical staff, from management down. If a private business were run in the same slipshod manner as the railway shipping office I venture to say it would be bankrupt in three months.—Yours, etc.,

August 28, 1951. (“It is not the practice of this office to reply to correspondents who hide their identity under the cloak ,of anonymity, but I frankly admit that unfortunately there have been occasions when delays have occurred through the failure of waybills to accompany the goods,” said the District Traffic Manager of the Railways Department (Mr W. A. Breach), when this letter was referred to him. “The matter was only recently brought under my notice, when steps were immediately taken to remedy the trouble. The fault does not lie at Lyttelton, nor is the management directly responsible, as instructions issued have, owing to a variety of circumstances, not been complied with. Should ‘Bonus’ care to call at this office he will be informed of the situation, and will learn that the department is equally as anxious as he that the matter be rectified forthwith.”]