A BUSY WATERFRONT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19623, 29 October 1925, Page 3

A BUSY WATERFRONT.

FEW VACANT BERTHS. OVERSEAS VESSELS IN PORT. Oversea steamers are very conspicuous at the Dunedin wharves at the present time. The unusual influx this ■week is due to the fact that a number of vessels, after being hold up at Auckland for several weeks, obtained crews and continued their voyages. Oversea vessels have been despatched from Auckland. Wellington, and Lyttelton at very Short intervals during the past two weeks, with the result that most of the principal southern ports have become congested. Dunedin cannot be said to be badly congested, but the port is likely to be to-day, when the already large fleet now occupying berths will bo augmented by the arrival of the oversea steamers Matakana and Devon, the Union steamer Opihi, and the coasters Storm and Oreti. No fewer than nine steamers of various sixes wore engaged in discharging and loading operations at the Dunedin wharves yesterday. The whole waterfront presented a very busy appearance, and hundreds of tons of merchandise were handled by the waterside workers. There was a big demand for labour, and atlhough every man who “stood up’’ found employment, there was a general shortage. Consequently several ships were worked with only one or two gangs. A number of men were transferred from the Port Hacking to the Canadian Prospector when the latter vessel arrived in the morning from Montreal, via northern porta The Tckoa, which came to Dunedin from Port Chalmers in the afternoon was unable to obtain full gangs to continue discharging the local portion of her London cargo. Several gangs were released when the Benicia sailed at 3.50 p.m. for Bluff and Sydney, but these men will not bo idle for long, as they will bo engaged to work on some of the vessels arriving to-day. Several additional steamers, both oversea and coastal, are expected to-morrow, Saturday. and Sunday, so that the vacant berths caused by the departure of ships whose cargo has been either discharged or loaded, will be quickly filled. It is expected that the oversea steamers Port Hacking and Canadian Prospector will sail to-day for Bluff, while the Wanaka will also clear for the same port. The Kent is to sail to-morrow for Wellington, where the repairs to her holds, which were damaged by fire when the ship at Auckland early last month, will be completed. The Ham Line steamer Treverbyn is also expected to sail to-morrow for Hobart. The Gale sailed last evening for way ports and Wanganui after loading a large cargo. The ten vessels berthed at Duneidin and Port Chalmers up to 3.3 C p.m. yesterday, that is. on the active last, was os follows: Tons gross. Leitrim (Port Chalmers) ... 9046 Tekoa 8526 Port Hacking -. 6225 Kent - - - 8660 Treverbyn 6281 Canadian Prospector 5492 Benicia 8080 Wanaka ... 2495 Knkapo Gale ... - - - - 867 Aggregate tonnage 52,863 With the departure of the Benicia and Gale, the tonnage was reduced to 47,246.