Eight Years Since Last Overseas Vessel Called at Oamaru

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26783, 28 May 1948, Page 3

Eight Years Since Last Overseas Vessel Called at Oamaru

NORTH OTAGO NEWS

Before the war an average of between nine and 10 overseas ships called at Oamaru each year, but during the last eight years not a single vessel had berthed at the port to discharge or load cargo for overseas ports, said Mr D. S. Bain, a member of the Habour Board, at a meeting of the Oamaru Progress League on Wednesday evening. This neglect of the facilities of the port not only slowed up the flow of exports from New Zealand, but meant that waterside workers in Oamaru were frequently forced to remain idle when labour shortages were retarding many other industries.

Representations from the Oamaru Progress League had met with little response, said the president, Mr A. R. Tait. It had become increasingly obvious that the Overseas Shipping Allotment Committee in Wellington was not interested in the problems of Oamaru, and in the meantime frozen meat from the works at Pukeuri was being carried to Port Chalmers by rail instead of being loaded at Oamaru. “ It sounds a little thin when the Railways Department claims that it is short of coal, if thousands of tons are being used unnecessarily," Mr Tait continued. “ This involves the exporters in heavy additional expenditure for railage. Moreover, wharf charges are considerably lower in Oamaru than Port Chalmers or Dunedin.” Among several vessels which had recently completed loading their overseas cargo at different ports, he continued, were the Coptic and the Paparoa, both of which had visited Oamaru before the war. The harbour was quite suitable for them then, and was quite as suitable to-day. There was no reason why these vessels should not have started loading in Oamaru and completed elsewhere. “ Coastal shipping calling at Oamaru has almost doubled in the last few years,” said Mr Bain. The failure of overseas vessels to visit Oamaru, however, meant a loss of revenue to the board of about £2OOO a year. The league decided to make representations to the Minister of Supply, Mr Nordmeyer, the .Waterfront Control Commission and the Meat Board, urging that overseas vessels should call at Oamaru as they did before the war.