Deodorant For Oamaru

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31672, 7 May 1968, Page 1

Deodorant For Oamaru

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, May 6. Chemicals may be used to rid Oamaru of the smell from the piles of rotting seaweed on the Oamaru foreshore. Trial supplies of a deodorant are being flown from Wellington to determine, which, if any, would be successful. Today the Mayor of Oamaru (Mr W. R. Laney), received a telephone call from a Wellington firm that has several types of chemicals available and the firm was referred to the Marine Department. Late in the day the Mayor was advised by the office of the Minister of Marine (Mr

Scott) that authority had been given to fly the chemicals to Oamaru.

“The deposits could stay so long as they don’t smell and become a breeding place for flies,” Mr Laney said. “Nobody is going to worry provided the deposits are not offensive.” Not Disaster The Medical Officer of Health for the Timaru health district, which includes Oamaru (Dr K. F. X. Bourke) said the smell was certainly a nuisance but there was no immediate danger to health, and it was hardly a disaster as claimed by the Mayor. “You have a lot of seaweed, but the heavy seas are shifting it,” he said today after his second inspection of the deposits. Because of rain in Oamaru today and the drift of the

sea to the north, the planned attempt to push the deposits back into the sea with a bulldozer was postponed. The Ministry of Works resident engineer (Mr B. J. Mackay) said today the sea appeared to be shifting some of the weed back to where it was a week ago. Over the week-end, deposits built up in an area between the mouth of Oamaru Creek and the mole -on Holmes Wharf, a distance of about a quarter of a mile. Weed was thrown up in a great wall on deposits left by earlier heavy seas.