Faster Meat Loading From Road Transport

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31598, 8 February 1968, Page 9

Faster Meat Loading From Road Transport

The success of a trial use of refrigerated containers to take meat by road from the freezing works to Lyttelton was seen by some members of the Lyttelton Harbour Board yesterday as the answer to the possible loss of business to the ports of Timaru and Bluff.

The Transport Commission has been inquiring into the proposal by overseas shipowners to ship South Island meat for London and Liverpool through those two ports only. “It is stange,” said Mr L. G. Amos, the board’s chairman, "that they want to rail the stuff 100 miles to use the Timaru equipment when it has been shown that we can do the same thing here, given co-operation between the freezing workers and the wharf people.” Mr B. G. Barclay asked if the shipping companies were going to produce figures in support of their claim that savings would be made by using Timaru and Bluff. Mr Amos said they would save 209 days a year by going to Timaru, and asked if that would be reflected in their freight charges. Mr A. J. Sowden, the board’s general manager, said the Transport Commission could call for the necessary figures, but Mr F. I. Sutton questioned whether overseas companies could be compelled to produce them.

The refrigerated container scheme was the answer to the proposal to use Timaru and Bluff, said Mr J. Brand. Other members agreed and urged that the scheme be given every support by the board.

“If we are able to say that we have got a method as good as or superior to the methods used at Timaru and Bluff, that is better than letting it drag on until the commission makes a decision,” said Mr E. Brophy. It was decided to invite Mr L. V. Etwell, promoter of the refrigerated container scheme, to attend the next meeting of the board’s works committee. Use of insulated containers for taking frozen meat by road from the freezing works to the ship’s hold had an ex cellent potential in contributing to faster loading of refrigerated cargo, said Mr J. B Graham, the board's traffic manager, in a report on the trial loading of lamb carcases into the Hauraki on January 16.

He suggested a number of modifications to the containers and methods of handling them. But he said there were no insurmountable problems in the organisation of trans-

port from the freezing works to the ship’s side and the handling of them once they got there.

Mr Graham said the use of insulated containers and portable pocket elevators offered the maximum gain in the long run because of that method’s adaptability to all-weather loading.