SHORTAGE OF TRUCKS

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 93, 20 April 1920, Page 8

SHORTAGE OF TRUCKS

DEPARTMENT'S' EXPLANATION,

Complaints were made in Wellington today that the Railway Department-..was uiing coal trucks for'the carriage of racegoing passengers, and that the carriage of much-needed coal in various parts of New Zealand was being held up in-con-sequence. It was alleged; that the". "Waihemo had been sent on from Wellington to Auckland through being unable to get sufficient trucks here, and further that the Taupiri Coal Mines had been temporarily closed down on the same account.- ' .

..The allegations were brodght under the notice of the officials of the Railway Department, who, after investigation, stated that on Thursday last only 18 coal trucks were used for the carriage of race passengers, but on Friday the seats were taken out of these and the trucks were immediately used for the purpose for which they had been built. No coal trucks were used for race traffic on-Saturday..-So-far.as the Waihemo was concerned, the fact: was that she had not brought coal at all. . She pame from San Francisco with a cargo of general merchandise and benzine, unloaded and reloaded here without interruption, and proceeded to Auckland to load more cargo for San Francisco, whither she was bound. The Department's officials added that there was an unusual influx of coal to New Zealand at the present "time,, and the coal-carrying trucks Were insufficient to meet the emergency. In addition loading and unloading operations. had been hampered on account of the wet weather. Coal, however, was being handled as .rapidly as possible, and it was hoped that ihe present difficulty would soon be overcome. ... .