PILOT QUALIFICATIONS

Evening Star, Issue 21710, 3 May 1934, Page 16

PILOT QUALIFICATIONS

LYTTELTON ALTERS BY-LAW RESERVATION DELETED (Per United Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, May 3. The qualification that appointments as pilots for Lyttelton be confined to men who have been in charge of vessels of 1,000 tons nr over provoked brisk discussion at the meeting of the Lyttelton Harbour Board. The board decided at its last meeting to delete this stipulation from its by-law, but agreed to hear a deputation on the subject. Tins representatives of overseas shipping interests protested against the alteration, urging that berthing at Lyttelton was very difficult on account of the confined space, and the pilots of the port should be men of the highest qualifications. After the deputation had withdrawn the board decided to inform them that, in the opinion of the board, the port’s efficiency would not be endangered •by the alteration of the by-law. Air Armstrong, M.P., said there was no reservation such as that in the bylaw in any other part of the world. Captain, Monro: Our pilots are the best in the world. Air W. K. M'Alpine ■ said..the pilots in London River were not sailors, but watermen who had served an apprenticeship on the river. “ Yet a pilot on the London River can pilot a vessel to hell or anywhere else,” he added.