LARGE CARGO OF LOGS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22390, 9 April 1936, Page 10

LARGE CARGO OF LOGS

CANADA TO AUCKLAND SPECTACULAR UNLOADING SHIP'S DECKS TO WATER With her decks stacked high with huge orcgon logs the steamer City of Vancouver arrived at Auckland on luesday night and berthed at Western Wharf yesterday morning. It is the first large shipment of logs to be brought to the Dominion from Canada as usually the timber is imported, already cut, by the regular cargo vessels. A small but fascinated audience lined the waterfront yesterday afternoon watching the logs being dumped overboard and then formed into rafts for towing to the yards of the Kauri Timber Company. Weighing between five and six tons many of the logs made a spectacular splash when dropped from the deck some 20ft. above. Some hit the water lengthways, while others disappeared end-on only to reappear after a few seconds and broach the surface as if propelled by some great invisible force.

On deck gangs of men toiled in the hot sun, their faces tanned a dark brown by the fine dust from the chafed bark of the logs. Others were nimbly moving from log to log while the logs floated alongside the ship, shackling them together with a wire hawser. The vessel had about 1500 logs on board, containing some 1,500,000 ft. of timber To ship a large number of logs on a specially chartered steamer such as the City of Vancouver is considered to bo by far the most economical way of importing the timber. The duty on the logs is less while the freight on a large cargo is much cheaper than when the timber is brought in small consignments on the regular steamers. The cutting of the timber in Auckland will provide employment for a number of local men and it is thought that further shipments of logs will be brought direct to the port. The City of Vancouver, which is owned by the Vancouver Steamship Company, experienced line weather and the voyage was uneventful.