CARGO LEFT ON WHARF

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27157, 12 August 1949, Page 6

CARGO LEFT ON WHARF

Trader To The East Passengers Embarked PA AUCKLAND, Aug. 11. Because of the wharf dispute, the Union Company’s freighter Wairimu will leave Auckland to-morrow for Singapore, Calcutta and Colombo leaving behind about 300 tons of cargo consigned to the East. The Wairimu arrived this afternoon from Bluff and was given an immediate berth to enable her to embark eight passengers and to take in stores. Her crew will change to foreign-going articles if no settlement has been reached by then. The Canadian-Australasian liner Aorangi will pass through Auckland on her voyage from Vancouver to Sydney next week without handling inward or outward cargo. A wireless message received from the liner stated that she would arrive here at 7 a.m. on Wednesday. She will sail for Sydney on Thursday. Perishable cargoes on incoming ships are likely to be left untouched. In past disputes, priority for labour has been given to vessels with perishable or urgently needed cargo, but there has been no indication that the shipowners will relax their attitude in any degree. Several thousand boxes of butter await discharge from the holds of the motor vessel Ranginui, which arrived to-day from Whangarei, and a small shipment from the north is held aboard the Kapiti. On the ground of international practice members of the Auckland branch of the Harbour Boards Employees’ Union decided to permit water to be carried to the immobilised Canadian freighter Ottawa Valley, ‘which has been anchored off North Head for more than a month. Stocks of water are running low on the ship and supplies will be taken to her anchorage in one of the Harbour Board tugs. The Ottawa Valley was declared black by the transport unions as a result of the Canadian seamen’s dispute and she has been at anchor since her arrival. The Harbour Board’s employees are maintaining their refusal to handle the ship in any way. She is being provisioned by launch and her fuel oil bunkers are sufficient to maintain steam for some months.