LOADING OF MEAT

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31498, 12 October 1967, Page 14

LOADING OF MEAT

Watersiders Concerned

Lyttelton watersiders have expressed hostility and dismay regarding the proposed plan to ship London and Liverpool meat cargo through Timaru and Bluff.

A statement issued by the vice-president of the Lyttelton Waterside Workers’ Union (Mr R. J. Wasley) yesterday said the union had pointed out to the Lyttelton Harbour Board in 1964 the necessity for the installation of meat loaders in order to hold Lyttelton’s competitive position in relation to Timaru. The board had given a negative reply. The proposal for a trial with the Port Adelaide to show what could be done by orthodox loading was typical of the backward, woolly thinking \of men who could not surely, in this day and age, conceive that man could beat the machine, Mr Wasley said.

“We will of course cooperate to the full, but we believe that this proposed experiment is just a matter of closing the gate after the horse has gone,” he said. The threat of redundancy for the Lyttelton labour force in the future was a grim prospect. “We need a change on the Harbour Board at top levelmore forward-looking and practical people, and more worker participation,” he said. The multi-millioh dollar project of Cashin Quay could either serve the needs of week-end fishermen or take its place with full utilisation as an integral part of the shipping industry, said Mr Wasley.

Benefit In Change (N.Z. Preu Auoeiation) WELLINGTON, Oct. 11. The Export and Shipping Council today endorsed the decision by the Meat Board to send .all meat from . the South Island to London and Liverpool through Bluff and Timaru. The acting chairman of the council, Sir Andrew Unton, said the council had received a report from the Meat Board and it considered the move would be of considerable benefit to New Zealand.

The changes would assist the flow of traffic around North Island ports and could assist in holding freight rates. There were no plans to extend the curtailment of export ports for certain shipments of meat to the North Island.