Board said to be ‘beating the gun’

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32702, 3 September 1971, Page 3

Board said to be ‘beating the gun’

(From Our Own Reporter)

WESTPORT, September 2. The statements of Mr F. I. Sutton, chairman of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, concerning its proposals to handle large tonnages of West Coast coal, timber, and beach sands savoured of “beating the gun,” as nothing official had yet been released by the Government on the prospects of such a trade, said Mr S. C. O’Keefe at the monthly meeting of the Buller Chamber of Commerce.

Mr O’Keefe, secretary of the Buller Joint Committee and author of the regional development proposal submitted to the Government a year ago, said he had- disi cussed Mr Sutton’s re. marks with the committee’s chairman (Mr W. A. Craddock). Mr Craddock, he said, had authorised him to disclose that a request to the Minister of Mines (Mr Shelton) for the committee to see the recommendations of the interdepartmental committee before they were released for publication, had been declined. The Minister had said the report would remain confidential until it was published. Mr O’Keefe did not believe that Mr Sutton had seen the reported or possessed a copy of it. “A BLUFF”

it was clear, he said, from Mr Sutton’s statement that the Lyttelton Harbour Board was only at the design stage in anticipating large tonnages of coal and other resources from the West Coast. He considered that the Lyttelton board had not spent any money at this stage. He described the proposed visit to Australia and Japan by the engineer and harbourmaster at Lyttelton to study, among other things, the working of bulk carriers of up to 50,000 tons, as a bluff. The chairman (Mr B. N. McEnaney): Don’t you think that we should start beating the drum? Mr O'Keefe said he was satisfied that railing Buller resources to the Canterbury coast for shipment abroad would mean turning the West Coast into a large quarry. He believed, in respect of - beech timber, that only logs would be railed to Canterbury, where the actual processing would be done. MINES DEPARTMENT POLICY A lot depended on the policy adopted by the Mines Department. If it contracted to sell coal to foreign interests on the basis of f.o.r. at Ngakawau, then it was

over to the buyer to determine how he wanted to transport it If the basis was f.o.b. at Lyttelton, then shippers would have no alternative but export through that port.

Mr B. W. Palmer said he had not read too much into Mr Sutton’s remarks. Reference had been made to a statement by the Minister of Railways (Mr Gordon) concerning Buller and the West Coast, but it was an established fact that the resources sought by overseas interests were in Buller, and that any proposal would have to be based primarily on transport arrangements from that end. Mr O’Keefe said the only prospect for the West Coast at this stage was.the proposal by a New Zealand-Japanese consortium to prospect in the Mount Davy area. Even if approval to proceed with mining were given, the Grey region would contribute only about 500,000 tons annually compared with a million tons

from Buller, plus ilmenite and beech products. Mr R. A. Spowart said that the Lyttelton Harbour Board’s motive was obvious enough. Lyttelton had failed to qualify as the third container terminal after Auckland and Wellington, and the board was anxious to build up its bulk-tonnage capacity to strengthen its case. Mr J. Bevan said he had noticed that the Lyttelton Harbour Board was advertising a development loan. He suggested that Mr Sutton’s remarks may have been orientated towards prospective investors.

Mr T. J. Phipps said that the Government should be persuaded to take the longterm view in its assessment of the West Coast’s resources. Timber had regenerative qualities but minerals, once exhausted, could not be replaced. The number of dead and dying townships on the West Coast was ample testimony that.