‘Delays At N.Z. Ports Worse’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31305, 27 February 1967, Page 1

‘Delays At N.Z. Ports Worse’

<Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.A.t LONDON, Feb. 26. Delays in the turnround of ships in New Zealand seemed to be getting worse, said Mr E. Vestey, a director of the Blue Star Line, speaking at Newcastle-on-Tyne, after the naming of the 10,500ton Timaru Star at Sunderland on Friday. "We find it not unusual for a vessel to take three times as long to turn round in New Zealand as she does in Britain, in spite of all the criticism one hears of the dock labour in the United Kingdom. The constant excuse time and again is shortage of labour and wet weather.”

He said Blue Star was as concerned as everyone in New Zealand at the way freight rates had had to be increased in recent years. “We are most concerned at the way our costs keep increasing, and the biggest single cost of this is, without any doubt whatsoever, the delays in New Zealand ports.” Mr Vestey also referred to “a red herring in the shape of containers,” which might rightly be “all the rage” but which were going to cost a tremendous amount of money and bring about many changes. Remarking that the Timaru Star was specially designed for carrying New Zealand products to markets at the other end of the world, he said he thought it appropriate if he “aimed a few words

at our many friends in New Zealand.” The Timaru Star and her sister ship incorporated many or the most modem devices that had yet been produced for saving labour and for speeding up the working of cargo. “In theory these vessels should with their superior equipment and extra speed be able to give us a much faster round voyage than the vessels built 30 years ago did when they were new,” Mr Vestey said. “Unfortunately they do not. In fact, we get a lesser number of voyages out of each vessel each year now than we did before the war. “This is almost entirely due, I regret to say, to the delays we are experiencing while the vessels are on the New Zealand coast—delays,

alas, which seem to be getting worse and worse.” Two ports in New Zealand had looked ahead and installed all-weather mechanical berths—the port of Bluff and Timaru. “But I would appeal to the other major ports in New Zealand to do the same,” Mr Vestey said. “I am certain of one thing,” Mr Vestey added. “Any benefit containers might bring to New Zealand will cost a tremendous amount of money, as every port would have to start from scratch. “Every ship on the run would have to be replaced. Practically every freezerblock in every freezing works would have to be redesigned, and we would have to think again and make considerable alterations to the railway and road access to every port.”