Railway Sheds Congested With Unclaimed Cargo

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28480, 9 January 1958, Page 8

Railway Sheds Congested With Unclaimed Cargo

Fifteen hundred tons of cargo discharged from the overseas ships Gothic and Middlesex is lying in the railways E shed unclaimed. The Railways Department

yesterday appealed to consignees to pick up their shipments as soon as possible to assist in avoiding a breakdown in cargo handling at the shed.

Cargo from the Gothic first arrived in the E shed on December 27 and was all through from Lyttelton on Tuesday. Middlesex cargo began coming in on December 30 and was all available for consignees to pick up on Monday. "This problem is acute,” the district traffic manager (Mr C. J. Millin) said yesterday afternoon. Mr Millin said that much of the cargo was not being cleared because consignees' offices were closed and customs clearances could not be arranged for carriers who were available to collect it. The number of railway waggons 'which had been brought from Lyttelton from the ships' side under load and had not been emptied was not alarming, but it was very serious. There were at mid-day yesterday 689 waggons under load and the number was reported to be growing steadily. Some firms had put on skeleton staffs over the holidays to handle shipments and the Chamber of Commerce had remained staffed to do what it could to help, Mr Millin said. He paid a tribute to the Chamber of Commerce for its assistance in arranging for importers’ and merchants’ warehouses to reopen to take cargo. In spite of the help much cargo remained and there was so much

overstowing in E shed that mechanical forklift vehicles could not move around to shift cargo. Deliveries were being slowed up because an overhead crane, the only type of machine able to lift cargo from the top, had to be used.

Eleven ships were working cargo in Lyttelton yesterday. The interisland steamer express Hinemoa was unloading general cargo from the North Island; the Napier Star was discharging its remaining 1500 tons, including 100 motor-cars; the Wairata had 1600 tons of

Eastern goods left; the Kaponga was unloading 1500 tons of poles.

sleepers and sawn timber; the Waimate was discharging 800 tons of salt and plaster; the Tainui had 500 tons of general cargo to goand the Port Wyndham had almost finished discharging and was ready to go on to loading general. There was still 750 tons of cargo to come out of the Port Phillip which was taking aboard meat and general cargo. The Melbourne Star and the Hororata were both loading outwards as was the Breeze, the only coastal vessel taking goods away.