Timaru Meat Exports May Double Under New Scheme

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31501, 16 October 1967, Page 8

Timaru Meat Exports May Double Under New Scheme

(From Oiir Own, Reporter) TIMARU, Oct. 12. Exports of meat through the Port of Timaru are expected to more than double under the new conveyor loading arrangement adopted by the New Zealand Meat Board and the Overseas Shipowners’ Committee. Export lamb for London and Liverpool will be drawn from nine freezing works, including Burnside at Dunedin. i Based on an average of the kills for the last two years, it is expected that 82,000 tons of lamb will go through the port. Furthermore, there win be a large tonnage of mutton and lamb for other destinations. , ’ The quantity of meat through the port next season could exceed 100,000 tons. Meat export figures at Timaru for the last five years were:— 1963, 54,991 tons; 1964, 48,425 tons; 1965, 45,653 tons; 1966, 47,135 tons; 1967, an estimated 46,289 tons. Eventually, the new method will call for an increase in the port’s waterside labour force of 209 men. The chairman of the Timaru Harbour Board (Mr E. W. D. Unwin) said the decision to ship South Island meat to London and Liverpool from Timaru and Bluff—the two ports with allweather mechanical loading equipment—was both logical and practicable. The decision to install the loaders was “a bold one,” and the equipment would be a major factor in cutting the

country’s overseas freight bill, he said. Hewas confident that with four loaders working the spirit Of co-operation and coordination which Was shown in the loading of the Tongariro would continue- Only two loaders were used for this ship, when a national turnround record for an overseas ship was established. Purchase of Tug ' Mr Unwin said the provision’ by the board of a tug would enable berthing by some of the latest refrigerated ships, at present prohibited from using the port. The board’s engineers were investigating the best method of deepening the entrance channel. Mr Unwin said that when the Molyneux Committee visited Timaru, its chairman said the board’s proposal- to run a cool store in conjunction with the meat loader was the first evidence that a recommendation of the Streamlining Committee had been adopted. "The provision of such a store (the loan application for which was deferred by the Local Authorities Loans Board pending further investigation by the Transport Commission) will enable the meat loaders to be used to their maximum, and the board will now take steps to discuss with the parties: concerned the erection of such a facility,” said Mr Unwin. Policy “Vindicated”

Congratulating the board bn building its mechanical loaders, the chairman of both the Overseas Shipowners’ Committee and Port Employers* Association in Timaru (Mr R. L. R. Davidson) said: “The board’s policy has been vindicated,” However, the vital necessity for the loaders to work

at maximum efficiency must be impressed upon the board, said Mr Davidson.

As in the past, waterside workers would do their best to ensure a good rate of loading, said the president of the Timaru Waterside Workers' Union (Mr L. R. Jenkin). The union was aware that the loaders, and their efficiency, were of the utmost importance to the port, - he said. Satisfaction at the new arrangement also was expressed by the president of South Canterbury Federated Farmers (Mr R. M. Ford). He congratulated the board for its “forward thinking,”and the enterprise which planned the modern port and meat-loading equipment. “National View” Commenting on objections to the recommendation by the chairman of the Lyttelton Harbour Board (Mr L. G. Amos), the Mayor of Timaru (Mr D. R. Dowell) said that parochialism had no place from a national point of view. The decision to upgrade the Port of Timaru would contribute immeasurably to the expansion and progress of Timaru and its district, he said. Old Score Back in 1908, at the start of South Canterbury’s efforts to secure a larger share of the shipping trade, the then

chairman of the Timaru Harbour Board (Mr James Craigie) said: “It is said that South Canterbury adopted a policy of aggression to secure an extension of trade inimical to Lyttelton and, with the object of making Timaru the premier port of the two. This might be taken as a compliment, but there is no desire to set up a war for trade against our neighbour. We have a large and fertile district to serve, and desire only to get all the trade that legitimately belongs to the port.” Something similar has occurred today. Relations between Timaru and Lyttelton were strained as far back as 1867, when trade was being done in larger measure with Dunedin than with Lyttelton. According to “Jubilee History of South Canterbury,” by Johannes C. Andersen, it was announced that nearly all trade with Lyttelton had ceased, and that, in future, the regularly-trading vessel Geelong would no longer trade with Lyttelton, but ply between Dunedin and Timaru. A few years ago Timaru secured the Japanese log trade, which Lyttelton also wanted. The Timaru Harbour Board’s dredge, the W. H. Orbell, left the Port of Timaru this week for its annual overhaul at Lyttelton.