SHORE POWER FOR SHIPS

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27988, 7 June 1956, Page 6

SHORE POWER FOR SHIPS

LYTTELTON BOARD’S

ATTITUDE

CRITICISM OF RULING BY MR DAVENPORT

It was still his opinion that, when one considered the inconvenience and hardships being suffered by thousands of householders and industrial undertakings, it was not unreasonable to request coastal shipowners to operate their own plant to supply ships with power while in port, said the chairman (Mr W. P. Glue) at a meeting of the Lyttelton Harbour Board yesterday. He was discussing the direction of the general manager of the State Hydro-electric Department (Mr A. E. Davenport) that the board should supply power to coastal ships in port. Previously, the board had agreed that to make the necessary power savings without interfering with the working of the port, supplies of shore power would be discontinued during the emergency.

The inference to be drawn from Mr Davenport’s public statement was that he (Mr Glue) had refused, to lift the restrictions until specific instructions had been received, Mr Glue said. He had insisted on written instructions, considering the matter to be sufficiently important to be properly recorded and the board’s position defined. “Not a Supply Authority”

“I did, however, inform the general manager that, on receipt of these instructions, power would be supplied to shipping, and the board should be completely absolved from all responsibility in the matter of rationing,” Mr Glue said. “The manager informed me that the board was not a supply authority within the meaning of the Public Works Act. This is probably technically correct, but for many years the board has been a distributing authority at the port, has received notifications from the department concerning conservation of power, arid has co-operated to the utmost to assist the department.

“When the chairman of the Port Employers’ Association interviewed me on May 8, he admitted that the reason they wished the restrictions to be eased was because members of the crews refused to attend to the generators during the night. “A complaint has been made that coastal shipping companies had received a 100 per cent, cut from the board. The proposals of the board, however, were designed so that no interference whatever was imposed on cargo working operations. “The present position is that members of the crews of ships’ in port are now guaranteed continuous power for their personal comfort and convenience,” Mr Glue said.

“The public should know that this board was wißrng and anxious to make a contributionTto what was a dangerous position, but was over-ridden by a higher authority,” said Mr G. Manning. ;