TURN-ROUND AT PORTS

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30216, 22 August 1963, Page 3

TURN-ROUND AT PORTS

N.Z. Found To Be Slowest (NJL. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Aug. 21. After visiting 14 British, European and United States ports, a three-man investigating team from New Zealand has decided New Zealand ports were slower than any others they saw. Mr V. P. Blakeley, the laeder of the team, said in Wellington today there were a number of reasons for the slow servicing of ships in New Zealand. Too much time was being lost because of weather and labour shortages. There was need for new methods to give the men on the wharves more incentive to co-operate with employers in getting work done faster, and there was need for a system of shift work at main ports which would operate to the advantage of the men and the shipowners. A feature of the ports visited was the extraordinary amount of mechanical handling of cargo, Mr Blakeley said. He said not one of the 14 ports visited had anything like the stoppages on account of rain which occurred here. When stoppages occurred, it was usually because of the nature of the cargo being handled, but it was surprising what types of cargo could be handled without damage in rain.

Three luxury liners will serve as floating hotels during the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.