POSITION AT PORT

Press, Volume C, Issue 29453, 3 March 1961, Page 10

POSITION AT PORT

Truck Supply Improved

The bottleneck of railway trucks at Lyttelton eased slightly yesterday. There were only 204 loaded trucks awaiting clearance to Christchurch yesterday morning—far fewer than earlier in the week. Nomal cargo work, both loading and unloading, took place on most ships in port yesterday, although some vessels had only skeleton gangs. Moreover there was a fairly plentiful supply of trucks available throughout the day The British freighter King David and the Norwegian freighter Susanne have been diverted to New Plymouth, but last evening four ships were still at anchor in the They were the Port Adelaide and Port Chalmers, both waiting to load refrigerated and general cargo the Japanese freighter Tenwa Maru which will load wool for Japan, and the intercolonial freighter Kaitoa with cargo from Australia for discharge. Two coastal freighters, the Poranui and the Maunganui, and the Dutch trader from the East, the Houtman sailed last night. The coasters Tainui, Calm and Kuaka were without labour most of yesterday, and the Kaimiro, discharging a bulk wheat cargo from Australia. was only partly manned. Expected today is the overseas vessel Tasmania Star, the coasters River City and Taupata. the Port Launceston and the inter-colonial vessel Babinda Some, perhaps all. of these vessels will have to anchor in the stream but it is expected that the ships now at anchor will have berths allotted them some time today. Overseas vessels expected to sail today are the Port Pirie the Canterbury Star and the Crusader Shipping Company’s chartered vessel, the Port Montreal. The Gale is also expected to sail. Another factor towards relief of the congestion is the deferred arrival of the Shaw Savill freighter Gallic which is now due on Saturday.