Log Cartage Blamed For Truck Shortage

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30560, 1 October 1964, Page 14

Log Cartage Blamed For Truck Shortage

Shortages of railway waggons at Lyttelton last month were blamed on the number being used to take Eyrewell logs to Timaru during a discussion at the Lyttelton Harbour Board yesterday. When there was a shortage on September 7 a telegram had been sent to the Minister of Railways (Mr McAlpine) expressing concern and saying there was a possibility that ships would be diverted from Lyttelton, with a serious loss of revenue to the board, the secretary-manager (Mr A. J. Sowden) reported. The Minister replied that inquiries were being made with a view to overcoming the problem.

“Later this month there was another hold-up in discharging steel from a Japanese vessel,” he said. “A telegram was sent again, but no reply has been received so far.” When it was decided that Eyrewell logs would be railed to Timaru fears had been expressed that this would cause a waggon shortage at Lyttelton, but the Minister had said this would not occur.

When the UB waggons eventually came to hand for the Japanese ship, the floors were covered with bark, indicating that they had been used for timber, Mr Sowden said. He had seen that 30 UB

trucks had been loaded with Eyrewell logs in one day, so it was reasonable to assume that 90 trucks were in operation between Timaru and Kaiapoi, said Mr F. I. Sutton. That made a big drain on the trucks for Lyttelton. There had been shortages of trucks long before there was wind-thrown timber from Eyrewell, said Mr W. B. Laing. “It has been a disease at Lyttelton for many years,” he said. The Aramoana might also have some effect on the availability of trucks. While there was “growling” about longer hours of work being needed on the wharves, nothing was said when the port could not be worked from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. because of truck shortages, Mr Laing said. The position would not improve until the transit shed was operating and goods were sorted there and taken away by truck, said Mr W. P. Glue. “That is the answer, but in the meantime we have to keep on jogging the Minister from time to time,” said the chairman (Mr A. A. Macfarlane).