Shipping And Harvest Strain Transport

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30051, 8 February 1963, Page 13

Shipping And Harvest Strain Transport

The coincidence of high demands for road and rail transport, emphasised by delays in unloading waggons, has resulted in hold-ups and stoppages in moving coal, grain and other goods in Canterbury and on the West Coast. Discharging of two bulk cargoes at Lyttelton halted at 5 p.m. yesterday because of a railway waggon shortage. The vessels affected were the German freighter, Carl Fisser, with 1000 tons of muriate of potash for discharge, and the Bank Line freighter, Testbank, with 3800 tons of sulphur from Beaumont, Texas. The Shaw Savill liner, Corinthic, was also affected, but was able to continue discharging some general cargo with one gang. The loading of vessels was not affected.

Delays in supplying railway waggons for the Mid-Canter-bury grain harvest have been

attributed to the large shipping movements at Canterbury ports. Delays have ranged from one day at Ashburton to one week at Lyndhurst, where a backlog of orders has built up. The pressure on waggons has been accentuated by the inability of mills to unload the grain from the railways and from the road transport firms which, in Mid-Canter-bury, are equally hard pressed to move the harvest There is also a shortage of railway waggons for coal transport from the West Coast where some mines are idle because the low water on the Westport bar has restricted ship movements as well The Stockton and Millerton mines are expected to work today, but not the Denniston mine. Bins are full at each mine.

Reports from Westland said it was believed there that the waggon shortage was the result of the Canterbury harvest’s demands.