Food squeezed off Chathams sailings

Press, 16 April 1980, Page 1

Food squeezed off Chathams sailings

Shipments of food ordered front Christchurch by Chatham Islanders have failed to arrive- because priority - has been given to - housing, fencing, and construction materials, according to Mrs M. Moss, wife of- the doctor at Waitangi. Mrs' Moss said that Christmas food orders arrived on schedule at Waitangi but, since then, deliveries had been’ irregular. She alleged that a quarter of the population of more than 700 was short of grocery items because of the -priority given to other cargoes aboard the Holmdale. .„ She specifically cited 29 cartons of food for the hospital, which had been listed on the vessel’s manifest for the voyage leaving Lyttelton on March 19 but which were not on board. On the present voyage the 29 cartons were still ab= sent and were not listed on the manifest.

A snokesman ■ for the North Canterbury Hospital Board said that he had been told that seven containers had stayed on the

wharves at Lyttelton “because the ship was too full.” “I assume the food supplies for the hospital were in some of those containers,” the spokesman said. Mrs Moss said that Chathams residents were asked in January not to place food orders, because priority had to be given to construction materials needed for the new airport and the reconstruction of the wharf at Waitangi. She said that they had complied with the request, but that subsequent orders were not shipped. “Two-thirds of the people have run out of . butter,” she said, “and that is only one shortage.” She and others on the island were having to . bake their own bread and there was also a shortage of fresh vegetables and fruit. A combination of events had contributed to the position, said a spokesman for the Union Group, which runs the Holmdale on behalf of the Ministry of Internal Affairs:

“We try to get away what we can,” he said. The Holmdale’s No. 1 hatch, which normally took concontainers, had on recent trips been loaded with wharf pilings, making stowage of all the containers impossible. In addition, he said, a recent voyage to Campbell Island, and the present voyage, which also included Pitt Island, had meant that, supplies for thethose less . frequent - destinations had had : to be carried.

He -said that two trips ago sufficient cargo had been presented' to the ship for- three voyages. The company did not always know what was in individual containers, and had been told by the freight forwarders which containers had priority. The Holmdale left Waitangi last Saturday for Pitt Island, and is not expected to return to Lyttelton until late this' week at the earliest. Her next voyage to Waitangi is tentatively scheduled for April 23.