AIR TRANSPORT OF MEAT

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27150, 21 September 1953, Page 13

AIR TRANSPORT OF MEAT

CLAIMS MADE DURING RECENT DISPUTE

RAILWAYS DEPARTMENT’S STATEMENT (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. September 16. “Now that a settlement has been made in the dispute between the aircraft loaders and their employers, Straits Air Freight Express, Ltd., it is pertinent in the public interest'to correct certain statements attributed to the secretary of the union and published recently in the newspapers,” states the Railways Department. “According to these statements the mdn had refused to load meat into the aircraft because they considered it was in a dirty state after having been used to carry livestock the previous day.” the department says. “The facts afd that the aircraft was clean ana had not bCCn used for carrying stock for some months. The loaders concerned in the dispute do not work On the airfield. These meh load the cargotts and handle the consignments in the goods shed at miles away from the airfield. The cargorts are mechanically loaded into the aircraft.

‘‘The aircraft in question had been used previously to carry meat between Palmerston North and Nelson, and no livestock had been carried in the interval and, indeed, not for some months on this particular aircraft. Up to the time of the dispute, pigs had never been transported on these services.

“Meat for transport by this method is invariably wrapped in muslin,. but all of the consignment in dispute was received at the shed wrapped in both muslin and sacks. The consignments from Palmerston North werfe inspected by the Government meat inspector at Feilding, who accompanied one cargo right to Nelson. Meat traffic, in common with any other foodstuffs carried by the air freighters, is always transported under the most hygienic conditions, and the Railways Department would gladly welcome any inspection at any time by health inspectors or other qualified persons,” says the statement.