Harbour Board foresight

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32706, 8 September 1971, Page 23

Harbour Board foresight

The expansion and establishment of some of Nelson’s

biggest industries 'would not have been possible had it not been for the foresight of the ' Nelson Harbour Board. \ In reclaiming 120 acres of mud flat, the board created new industrial sites close to the heart of the city. But the reclamation of this area also gave the board the base for wo big wharves to accommodate overseas ships landig and loading cargo. Today, Port Nelson is the hb of the province’s industes. Across its' wharves c<ne huge crates of car parts fc. the factory of Motor Aiemblies, Ltd, at Annesbn>k, fertilisers and all miner of other cargo. bring the flush of the app season, more than lj mittn cases of fruit are load! aboard overseas ships

for New Zealand’s export markets. And all the year round, logging vessels call and leave with hundreds of thousands of tons of logs for Japan. Regular visits are made too, of the chip ships, whose holds draw their cargo from the mountains of chips alongside McGlashen Quay.

Some idea of the evergrowing importance of the port to the welfare of the province can be gauged from the tonnages of cargo which passed over the wharves to the end of September last year. For this year, 390 vessels called at the port with or for 607,903 tons of cargo.

Of this, 336,790 tons were timber products (logs and chips). As well 1,667,438 cases of apples were loaded for export. ■ ,