PORT MOTUEKA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 3 December 1940, Page 7

PORT MOTUEKA

ROAD AND SEA TRANSPORT MININSTER SUGGESTS CONFERENCE OF TRANSPORT AND USER INTERESTS NEED TO NURSE EXISTING FACILITIES MEETING OF HARBOUR BOARD ' At the monthly meeting of the Mo- | tueka Harbour Board those present were Messrs C. H. Mackay (chairman), i D. L. Drummond. P. B. Calder, R. j Teece, A. Rowling and Horatio Everett, i An apology for absence was tendered i on behalf of Mr R. P. Rowling. FINANCE Accounts amounting to £226 5s 3d j were presented and passed for payI ment, leaving a bank balance of £2155 j 14.- 9d. WORK ON FORESHORE The chairman reported that the proj tection work at the foreshore was well I under way The four men on the job j had been working for four weeks, and * a further two weeks were required to ! complete it. Mr A. Rowling reported I Inat the noxious growths on the Moutere Inlet road had been cut. i BETTER FINANCIAL POSITION i The chairman in referring to the i financial position of the Board, stated I that the board was approximately £4OO belter off than at the same period of last year. Mr H N. Glover, secretary, pointed out that increased shipments of tobacco and lime, together with payment of rates in arrears had been mainly responsible for the improved position of the board’s finances. UNSATISFACTORY WATER SUPPLY A deputation consisting of Messrs C. L. Harvey and A. Head waited on the Harbour Board in respect to the unsatisfactory water supply the residents of Port Motueka were receiving. Mr Harvey explained that on Tuesday, 26th November, thirteen householders were without water until 10.30 or 11 a.m.. with the result that no one got a drink for breakfast, and that on two previous occasions residents were without water and were much inconvenienced. When the system was installed they had been promised a good supply with pressure. For a time the residents had no complaints, but now there was no pressure. Mr Harvey stressed the unsatisfactory position in case of fire and added that no one objected paying for water, but they did object to paying for something they were not getting. Mr Head, speaking in support, said the question of lack of pressure and sometimes water was, from his point of view, the most serious aspect of the j In regard to there being no water in | the tanks on 26th November Mr Cal- j der explained that a part of the machinery had broken and pumping had ceased, a fact that had not been noticed until the tanks were tmpty. j The chairman said the board was | most dissatisfied with the present posi- j tiun of the pumping arrangements and, had taken the matter up with the Electric Power Board. M*' Harvey thanked the board for its! sympathetic hearing and expressed the hone that an improvement would be effected in the near future. TRANSPORT OF APPLES AND PEARS BOARD OBTAINED REVENUE FROM BULK OF FRUIT The Minister of Marketing, the Hon. W Nash, acknowledged the board’s letter of 2nd October and in reply stated that a full investigation had been maae into the transportation of apples and pears from the Motueka district, and that from the accompanving table it would be seen that the board had obtained revenue from the bulk of this fruit. It was pointed out that the 25.000 cases *hat did not pay revenue was required for South Island markets, mainly Westland and Canterbury. The Minister a’so stated that a small portion of the fruit which had paid wharfage was trasported overland to Nelson to meet the needs of the export loadings at Nelcn or Wellington. Most of the export fruit was shipped through Port Motueka and this practice was only departed from when shipping arrangements from Motueka did not fit in with the urgent requirements of overseas vessels. On the motion of the chairman and Mr Everett, it was decided that Mr Nash be thanked for his letter. The Minister of Transport, the Hon. R Semple, wrote stating that while he appieciated the weight and force of the representations made recently by the Motueka Harbour Board and other bodies associated with it regarding the! desirability of transferring traffic from! the road to the shipping services in the Golden Bay district for the purpose of conserving petrol and encouraging sea transport, he felt that the public road freight transoort services now played such an important part in the production of the district that he would be very reluctant to take any arbitrary action in the direction of curtailing them He had reached this conclusion because of the paramount importance of the production of primary products in toe national war effort and the de- • sirability of maintaining the transport services at the highest possible pitch of efficiency in order to achieve this objective. At the same time, however, he felt it was undesirable that competition between the road and sea transport servires should be allowed to develop to an inordinate extent, particularly while the country was at war and needed to “nurse” existing transport facilities to the utmost rather than allow them to be destroyed by competition. He thought this aspect of the matter was one for consideration and volunta",T adjustment by the various local interests concerned' in the light of present day affairs, rather than for arbitrary action by the Government. He I suggested, therefore, that arrangements be made to convene a conference of the | various transport and user interests | concerned with the object of considering the present allocation of traffic between road and sea transport services, and the desirability of arriving at some muluaily agreed upon allocation for the duration of the war. He had asked the. Commissioner of Transport in the event ol a conference taking place, to give j every possible assistance in the direction of letting the conference have all relevant facts that may be available in the Transport Department As the road transport services in the district came under the jurisdiction of the No. .1 Transport Licensing Authority. he, suggested that any agreements arrived! at by a conference be submitted to Mr' Langford. If the Authority approved l the Department would then give every ; possible assistance in seeing that the' arrangements were satisfactorily carried Mr Calder pointed out that the people -if Motueka were being penalised to the extent of Cl 2s 6d per lon on goods shipped to Nelson and forwarded to Motueka by road, as against goods shipped direct to Motueka by boat On thp motion of the chairman and Mr Everett the secretary was instructed to forward a copy of the Minister’s letter to the Motueka Borough Council! and to the Retailers’ Association. It

was also decided that Mr Semple’s letter be further considered r.t the next meeting of the board. The County Clerk, Waimea County Council, acknowledged the bond’s letter and in reply stated that his Council did not know when a re-valuation of the county was likely to take place Received. SCHEME NO. 13 The Registrar of Social Security. | writing in regard to an enquiry as to men employed under Scheme 13 making up tune lost while off the scheme for private work, advised that it was not permissible for such time to be made up. Scheme 13 men were encouraged to accept any casual work which may be available to them during the period i of their employment of Scheme 13, but [ it was not reasonable for them to ex- [ pect to have the Scheme 13 time lost through this private work made up to them. There was another point which should be borne in mind, and that was that except in very special cases approved by the National Service Department in Wellington, any Scheme 13 worker engaged in any other paid emplovment on Saturdays and Sundays or in the evenings must be warned thal continuance of such private work would 1 mean disqualification from Scheme 13 j' w ork. Recently the writer had a com- 1 1 plaint to the effect that some Scheme 13 ; men employed by the Motueka Harbour board were obtaining work on the wharf before ordinary Scheme 13 work- ! mg hours and sometimes after hours. « Moreover it was suggested that such ! men aiso accepted Saturday work. It ! wa.> stated that there was an instance 1 recently of men commencing work on ' a boat at some early hour in the morn- ! mg (staled to be 3 a.m.), working on ' the boat until 6 or 7. starting on ' Scheme 13 at the usual time, and then ! returning to work on the boat in the ■ evening. Such a position should not 1 bo allowed to continue, but unfortu- ! nately the person laying the complaint < was not prepared to be specific and 1 name the men involved. On this ac- ! count it was not possible to take any ' action m the matter, but it would be ap- 1 preciated if. in the future, anv such oc- ! currences coming under the notice of i b°ard were brought to the notice 1 of the Employment Bureau. The writer pointed out that by work- i mg m such a way men employed on 1 Scheme 13 may be doing work which 1 men in a less fortunate position could undertake, and it was not intended that 1 Scheme 13 should be used to the ad- ' vantage of some others who were unceived° ° btain WOrk on the scheme. Re-