SOUTH ISLAND POTATOES
SAMSTRAE’S SHIPMENT LARGE QUANTITY ROTTEN (P.A.) AUCKLAND. Aug. 9. A fairly large quantity of rotten potatoes, by far the worst to arrive in Auckland for some time, is being unloaded from the Samstrae, which arrived here over two weeks ago with more than 21,000 sacks from the South Island. The exact quantity of rotten potatoes is not known, but one merchant estimated that 15 per cent, of his allotment was bad.
“Many potatoes are completely unusable, while others are spotted and cannot be sold as first class," said the president of the Auckland Grain, Seed and Produce Merchants’ Association, Mr Scott Colville. “Ships such as the Samstrae are unfit to carry such cargo as potatoes. There is no between deck, and consequently there is a great weight on the bottom sacks. The time taken to load and unload makes it necessary for perishable cargo to be in the holds much longer than is desirable. The potatoes on the Samstrae were loaded between July 4 and 16. and the ship arrived here on July 20. Practically 17 days were taken to unload the ship. “The solution to the potato shortage is to use smaller ships, which can load quickly," said Mr Colville. “These ships could make the round trip in a fortnight as long as they were not held up by labour trouble."
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 26227, 10 August 1946, Page 8
Word Count
225SOUTH ISLAND POTATOES Otago Daily Times, Issue 26227, 10 August 1946, Page 8
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