Lyttelton Impresses U.S. Expert

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32208, 29 January 1970, Page 10

Lyttelton Impresses U.S. Expert

Lyttelton, with its adequate land behind Cashir; Quay, was ideally suited to be developed as a container and bulk-cargo-handling port, and the open space would be envied by many overseas port authorities, Mr D. H. Tilson, an American visitor to New Zealand, said after seeing the port yesterday.

Mr Tilson, a chemical engineer, spent 44 years working for the Aluminium Company of America and in retirement is an industrial consultant to the Port of Vancouver, Washington. He is engaged on a study of reclamation of land from a lake on the river port of Vancouver which has become badly polluted, and this led him to say that pollution was a world-wide problem which | could not be emphasised too ; strongly. i “You have got it here,” Mr I Tilson said after seeing signs I of smog on his way to Lyttel-

ton. However, Christchurch; had the opportunity to learn! from older and more pol-l luted cities how to overcome | the problem. His problem is to redevelop a lake on the Columbia River port which has become polluted by streams running into it carrying material from road excavations and some sewage so that it has silted up. Model tests of the area are being done by an American university, and Mr Tilson expects that it will be possible to regain the lake and reclaim land necessary for the container shipping age.

This brought his thoughts to shipping developments, and he said that Vancouver was just on the fringe of the container age. He urged caution for Lyttelton, saying that events were moving so fast that those who took things slowly and watched developments would probably benefit more than those who rushed ahead.

Mr Tilson and his wife arel on a private visit to New! Zealand, having been “sold” the country by one of their J two doctor sons who spent; his rest and recuperation ■ leave from Vietnam, where he was a surgeon in a Saigon hospital, in Auckland. j Mr Tilson has made his ; holiday partly a working trip 1 because of his membership of j Rotary. This led him to meet officers of the Lyttelton Har- 1 bour Board visit the port, oc- ' casions which he described as ' another chapter in a story of 1 New Zealand hospitality. 1