RUMOURS OF SHIP DIVERSION

Evening Star, Issue 25995, 9 January 1947, Page 6

RUMOURS OF SHIP DIVERSION

REFRIGERATED SPACE CAN'T BE WASTED ; ‘‘ A request is-now being cabled from Loudon, for shipping companies in New Zealand to divert refrigerated cargo ships from Dominion ports' to the River Plate, South America, because of the wharf hold-ups and consequent delay iii the turn-round of ships,” said Mr Warwick Gregory, resident‘director in Sydney of the Port Line, who is on a six weeks’ visit .to -New Zealand. ‘‘There simply is not enough refrigerated tonnage in the world to allow ships to be held up for long periods on the coast. “ We have six ships on the coast'at present, and the other companies are m a similar position. Ships are being delayed and are piling up, so that other ships can neither enter the ports nor get out again. “ It is obvious,’’ said Mr Gregory, “ that until there is a proper turn-round of vessels, the killing and freezing of meat and the export of foodstuffs will be delayed. If refrigerated ships are , diverted from New Zealand that \ must have a detrimental effect on primary producers. All delays will ultimately be paid for by the consumer, No advice of the suggested diversion of ships to South America has been received by the- Auckland offices of the New Zealand Shipping Company, the Shaw Savill and Albion Company Ltd., or the Blue Star Line. The chairman of the Port of Auckland Shipping and Stevedores' Association, Captain R. S. Lewis, ' said he had received no information. The Auckland manager of the New Zealand Shipping Company, Mr G. I. Tait, said he had been advised by his head office in Wellington that no information had been received, and the statement could not be confirmed.