Early Completion Of Port Scheme Urged

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28490, 21 January 1958, Page 12

Early Completion Of Port Scheme Urged

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, January 20.

A strong recommendation that money be made available at once to complete within five years the Lyttelton Harbour Board's £3,500,000 port develop, ment scheme was made a year ago by a working group of experts comprising Government officen representing the Marine, Railways, Agriculture, Transport and Works Departments.

This group .was ordered to examine the adequacy of New Zealand’s port and rail facilities and to suggest measures needed to increase efficiency. It made a special study of all ports, together with their specific transport problems. The observations of the group were compiled in a 110-page cyclostyled report prepared by Treasury officers. This was presented to the then Minister of Railways (Mr J. K. McAlpine) in December, 1956. The full report has not been released. The report says that road and rail access from the Christchurch area to its port of Lyttelton is inadequate to. cope with the volume of trade, and that no improvement can be expected until the proposed tunnel road is constructed.

Of the 'Canterbury plains reading system to the Christchurch side of the hills, the working party has nothing but praise. “The same can be said for the railway system,” the report says. “This includes many branch lines supplementing the South Island main trunk.

“However, the road and rail access from the Christchurch area to the port is inadequate to cope with the volume of trade. No improvement can be until the proposed tunnel road is established, which would take up to fivb years from the establishment of the Tunnel Road Authority.” The working party quotes a Department of Agriculture estimate that in 10 years’ time meat exports from Lyttelton will increase by 23 per cent, and wool exports by 46 per cent. Additional exports for these two items are estimated at 16,000 tons a year. Railway Congestion The party is critical of railway congestion in Lyttelton. “Railway yards in Lyttelton at present occupy all the space available for the purpose,” says the report. “There is thus little or no scope for their expansion under the present set-up. The result is that the rail yards at the port are congested with both 1 inward and outward cargoes. “Inward cargo has to be cleared from the port as quickly as possible. This, in turn, causes further congestion in the Christchurch railway yards “The movement of the Christ-church-Lyttelton steamer express train in the evenings also restricts for a while the movement of railway waggons around the wharves. “Qongestjgn In £he Chtistehpreh railway yards is further aggravated by the fact that ships and railways both work till 9 p.m. and on Saturday mornings, while carriers and warehouses normally do not pick up - goods from the railway shipping sheds at Christchurch after 4.30 p.m. on Mondays to Fridays. “There is also a tendency on the part of shipping companies to order the transport by railway waggons of outward cargo in advance of actual requirements, and these additional waggons greatly add to the problem.’’ More Shed Space The working party believes that as the railway shipping sheds at Christchurch are virtually the

wharf sheds for the port of Lyt. telton, some additional allotment of shed space is needed to inj. prove the handling of gooda pending completion of the major harbour development scheme. On Lyttelton port difficultly the working party says: “Pon development within the existing breakwater has reached saturation point for overseas vessels, Work is commencing on the £3,500,000 development scheme which provides four additional overseas berths on a new site, together with cargo sheds and road and rail access. “The Harbour Board estimates that the work will take eight to 10 years to complete, based on the rate at which loan money is becoming available. Delays occurring at the port are such that the speeding up of ’ thia work should be expedited. Completion of the work within five years would be possible if the money were more readily available.” Frozen Meat An appeal by overseas shipowners to use insulated road vehicles to move frozen meats from works to ships is noted, but the group does not believe thia is practicable while the present arrangement exists. Access to the wharves does not, in the group's opinion, permit of the additional use of road-to-ship cartage. On the labour position, the report comments: “There are times when labour is short at Lyttelton, but the shortage is not as serious as at Wellington or Bluff.”