DIAMOND HARBOUR LAUNCHES

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27992, 12 June 1956, Page 12

DIAMOND HARBOUR LAUNCHES

Service May Be Reduced CONTRACTORS’ LETTER TO COUNCIL Residents of Diamond Harbour are faced with the prospect of the passenger launch service being reduced to one vessel, the Onawe. The Lyttelton Borough Council last evening received a letter from Mr F. I. Sutton, principal of Sutton Brothers, Ltd., contractors for the service, informing the council that the company intended "to give up the service at the expiration of the present contract in June. 1957. Mr Sutton said that one : launch, the Ngatoa-nui, had been sold to a Picton buyer. The firm also proposed to sell the Nga-tiki. the newest of the launches, in which event the service would be maintained, until the expiration of the contract, with the Onawe. He suggested that the council might be interested in the purchase of the Nga-tiki. • He was sorry that the company could not continue, said Cr. A. M. Miller. The council could not run the service, and he hoped that somebody would take it over. Cr. A. R. Champion said he would be loth to see the Nga-tiki leave the port. It would be difficult to replace a vessel of that class; A motion by Cr. W. Morris, that a committee be set up to confer with Sutton Brothers, Ltd., and with representatives of the residents of Diamond Harbour, was carried. Crs. Miller, Champion, and Morris were appointed as the committee.