Concern At Loss Of Port Trade

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31530, 18 November 1967, Page 16

Concern At Loss Of Port Trade

The Lyttelton Harbour Board was not taking the loss of business “sitting down”, Mr J. Brand, of Ashburton, a member of the board, told farmers and members of the public at the Mid-Canterbury export lamb competition at Fairfield on Thursday.

He congratulated the Meat Board for taking the bold step of using mechanical loaders at Timaru and Bluff. It had been done to reduce the cost of freight and there had never been a time when this was more necessary, said Mr Brand. However, sl2m to Sl4m had been spent in modernising and extending the harbour at 'Lyttelton, and loss of trade was causing great concern. “The Lyttelton Harbour Board is not accepting this sitting down," said Mr Brand. Hp said trials would soon be held with insulated containers holding 30 cwt of jmeat. The containers would I be filled at the works and taken by road to the ship’s side.

This scheme had great possibilities and would win back some of the trade lost to Timaru, said Mr Brand. If

there was any shipping holdup the meat could be held or diverted with little being lost in the pipe-line. The Dunedin and Lyttelton Harbour Boards had referred the use of Bluff and Timaru ports to the Transport Commission to see if the savings were as real as claimed.

Canterbury had two major ports 100 miles apart competing with each other, said Mr Brand. He was pleased to see that steps were being taken to set up a national port authority, as the country could not afford such competition.