Bluff’s claim: ‘facts not conjecture’

Press, Issue 33845, 17 May 1975, Page 21

Bluff’s claim: ‘facts not conjecture’

F (From 808 McCORMICK) INVERCARGILL. Southland s continuing attempts to have Bluff as the second South Island container port will emphasise “facts not conjecture” when further submissions are made in a few days to the Government. according to the chairman of the Southland Harbour Board (Mr I. H. R. Guise).

He said on Thursday that] the submissions were based mainly on information obtained by economic advisers to the Ministry of Transport. | Mr Guise said: “Our sub-1 missions are now merely an endorsement of that information which clearly caused the Minister of Transport; (Sir Basil Arthur) to have! our claims checked — which was not done by the Ports Authority before, recommending Port Chalmers.” TRAFFIC CHAOS Southland had always accepted Bluff’s role should be as secondary and complementary to the Lyttelton container port. Submissions would emphasise Bluffs meatloading performance — “a maritime operation almost as critical as container handling”, social and economic implications to the province and the nation, and that the moving of huge amounts of meat exports and goods forj containers to Port Chalmers,! if the decision went that! wav, would create transport; cha'os and greatly increase costs. The Bluff branch of the Watersiders’ Union was pre-; paring its own submissions, not just petitions, and it be-! lieved that an unsolicited telegram paid for by more; than 18,000 Southlanders; was evidence of public con-i cern more tangible than’ "petitions signed by all and sundry.” LOW-KEY Mr Gordon Grieve, former; National member of Parlia-;

I ment for Awarua, is heading ! the Southland Progress League’s low-key co-ordina-tion of local preparation of | submissions; and in Parliament the local members — Mr Aubrey Begg (Awarua) and Mr J. B. Munro (Invercargill) — are lobbying I hard. Mr Guise said results of independent investigation ; into the physical suitability ; of Bluff harbour — based on the achievements of the har-

bour board's dredging programme — would surprise |the port’s critics. ' He said that, unlike Otago, I Southland had never appealed against the Ports Authority’s approval of LytItelton on the ground of wanting to have the only South Island container port. With two ports, it was in : the national interest if the ! chosen ports were well 'apart, to give wider I coverage.