PICTON FIRST PORT

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33611, 13 August 1974, Page 2

PICTON FIRST PORT

(N.Z. Press Association) BLENHEIM, Aug. 12. Picton will be the first New Zealand port of call for a cargo service between this country and South-East Asia every six weeks. The Straat Chatham, the Straat Cumberland, and the Straat Clarence will bring cargo from Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and other countries, including Indonesia. They will call at

Fiji before coming to New Zealand. Picton and Lyttelton will each see one of the three ships every six weeks. The Straat Chatham brought 600 tons of cargo on pallets, and discharging at Picton started this afternoon. Much of this first cargo is rubber. “We have never had a regular service to South-East Asia through this port,” said a New Zealand representative for the line, Mr C. J. Feith. “We feel the South Island should be served every three

weeks, but not through both Picton and Lyttelton on the same voyage. So they will alternate,” he said.

After leaving Picton, the ships will call at Auckland and Tauranga to take on return cargoes. The service is intended to run closely to timetable, so that shippers and importers will know to the day when their cargo will arrive. About a dozen New Zealand passengers from the Straat Chatham disembarked at Picton today, after a sixweek round tnp in the ship. They left from Tauranga.