Protest over plans to fill dry dock

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33874, 20 June 1975, Page 3

Protest over plans to fill dry dock

'•W Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, June 19. An admission by the Otago Harbour Board that it would now need to till in the Port Chalmers dry dock to obtain sufficient land for the second container port has brought a howl of protest from the port.

A spokesman for an engineering firm at Portj Chalmers said it was! more important to de-1 velop industry in Dunedin than “handle a few; boxes.” The spokesman. Mr N. S. Brown, general manager of Dunedin Engineering, Ltd. and Farra Bros, was reported as saying that the engineering : industry in Otago “would' make a song and dance” if j the Otago Harbour Board i attempted to reclaim the! dock. Several weeks ago the “Southland Times” reported dissatisfaction with a likely move bv the Otago board to fill in the dry dock to obtain the necessary land which the; board said it had for the sec-i ond container berth. Port Chalmers sources at the time described the story, as a “clever Southland scare story.” Yesterday the general manager of the Otago board (Mr

|R. F. de Lautour) admitted! That his board’s policy was! • to approach the authorities [with a view to providing |f'-esh dry docking facilities to replace the “obsolete dock to • be filled in with container 'wharf reclamation.” The Port Chalmers repre-l . sentative on the board. Mr! f Norman Agnew, described the . imove as a good chance of I! having a national dry dock >established at Port Chalmers, j! Mr Agnew also said it was ■j the board’s policy that any [ I workers who were out of a J job through the filling in of the old dock would have their , interests safeguarded. Denied at first The “Southland Times” i‘Previously reported that mem-: Jbers of the Port Chalmers • •i branch of the Engineers’ I Un ion were also concerned :lover the closing of the dock J to make wav for containerisajtion. It was at first denied but later established that union •i executives had written to

Itheir members of Parliament I protesting over the likelihood of the dock being filled in. Reports yesterday indicated that the closure would be swift and the Port Chalmers dock would be filled in by the lend of the year to make wax for containerisation. Mr Brown said the dock should be enlarged and improved to develop a multimillion dollar industry foi Dunedin. He said it was more important to develop the industry than handle a few boxes anc “everybody shares in the cake in the refitting industry, unlike the container industry.’ When the vessel Hamiltor 'was in the dock recentlv foi la refit, said Mr Brown, aboul 63 companies shared in the work. Dunedin was one of the few places left in New Zealand where there was a viable heavy engineering industry and Port Chalmers was one of two places left in Nev Zealand which had a shipbuilding industry. “The building of an industry in Dunedin was more vita than the container terminal,’ I said Mr Brown. ; His views were shared by Mr T. H. Smith, of Sims I Engineering, Ltd. who was reported last night as saying i that the filling in of the dry dock would be a loss to the whole community.