OTAGO ACCUSES MEAT BOARD

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31499, 13 October 1967, Page 26

OTAGO ACCUSES MEAT BOARD

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, October 12.

The New Zealand Meat Board was accused at a meeting of the Otago Harbour Board today of incorrectly using funds in its plan to centralise exports of meat for London and Liverpool through Timaru and Bluff.

The Meat Board plans to subsidise internal rail freight charges throughout the South Island: the Harbour Board chairman, Captain J. B. McGowan, told a meeting of Otago organisations that it was wrong for Meat Board funds to be used to favour one port at the expense of another.

The meeting decided to send a deputation, in association with the Lyttelton Harbour Board if it was agreeable, to wait on the Prime Minister, with other Ministers concerned in attendance, to protest at the Meat Board’s move. The deputation will give five reasons for its protest which it wants conveyed to the Ministers of Agriculture, Marine and Transport, the Overseas Shipowners’ Committee, the Harbours’ Association and the Transport Commission.

The meeting also authorised Captain McGowan to seek legal advice on the possibility of taking out an injunction against the board under the Trade Practices Act to prevent its going ahead with the plan. 36 Attend The meeting was attended by about 36 persons, representing the Harbour Board, the City Council, the Port Chalmers Borough Council, the Waterside Workers, the Otago Development Council, Federated Farmers, Chamber of Commerce and several other Otago organisations af-

fected by the Meat Board’s proposals. Mr J. S. Thorn, Mayor of Port Chalmers, said little thought had been given to the effects of the proposal, and the possibility that men would be deprived of their livelihood.

Mr P. J. Scott, a member of the Harbour Board, said that the Meat Board had been completely “heartless and irresponsible” in making its decision. Reduced Tonnage

"The reduced meat tonnage through Port Chalmers will result in increased wharf charges, and this will be reflected in increased prices for goods in our shops,” he said. “On top of this, the Railways will need more waggons to carry all this tonnage of meat throughout the South Island, which will mean further calls on the taxpayer." The meeting agreed that there would be redundancy at Port Chalmers of waterside work, employment and utilisation of Harbour Board capital, plant and equipment. “The method of introducing this proposal is completely contrary to the interests of the ports concerned, the country, and is contrary to the views expressed in the Molyneux report, and by the Harbours’ Association and the Transport Commission, and is contrary to the outlook of and viewpoint of waterside workers," said a resolution of the meeting.

At the suggestion of Mr P. G. Connolly, the Harbour Board’s finance committee chairman, it was agreed to suggest to Wellington that the harbour board should be compensated out of the savings the shipping lines’ envisage.