Problems face board

Press, 9 December 1976, Page 3

Problems face board

The Lyttelton Harbour Board’s hundredth annual general meeting was held yesterday, in the plush surroundings of its Christchurch board room — a far cry from its first meeting in the old Lyttelton Post Office, on January 1, 1877. But even in its ninetyninth year, the board has found the going less than plain sailing. Reviewing the last 12 months performance, the chairman (Mr J. Brand) said the board’s public debt had risen from SIIM to SI9M — "a lot for an

organisation the size of ours.” “This will continue to increase, and will not come right until the container terminal is in full operation,” he said. The loss of the Rangatira had compounded the board’s problems, Mr Brand said. The port had effectively lost 150,000 tons of cargo because of he replacement of the Rangatira by the Coastal Ranger, he said. At the same time, the abandonment of the

steamer express terminal and the funnelling of all Lyttelton-Wellington rollon cargo through the sea cargo terminal meant the development of the sea cargo terminal had suddenly bec.ame urgent. However, losses on the Wellington trade had been redressed somewhat by the diversion of Canterbury wind-thrown logs from . maru to Lyttelton, Mr Brand said. This helped reduce the port’s shortfall on throughput, on last year’s figures, to 87,047 tonnes.