TIMBER USED AS DUNNAGE

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1931, Page 7

TIMBER USED AS DUNNAGE

REPLY MADE TO CRITICISM. SHIPPING COMPANY By Telegraph—. Press Association. Invercargill, Last Night. Earlier in the week it was reported that' two members of the shipping committee of the Invercargill Chamber of Commerce, Messrs.« D. J. Wesney and W. Grieve, had visited three overseas ships at Bluff and found quantities of foreign timber on board for use as dunnage. The ships were the Tongariro, Cornwall and Taranaki. In reply the local manager of the New Zealand Shipping Company said to-day: “While We have no desire to enter into the merits or demerits of the case we feel members of the shipping committee of the Chamber of Commerce were too precipitate in their action; as according to inquiries made only New Zealand timber is being used in the preparation of holds for the homeward voyage, and no foreign timber’is on board either vessel, with the exception of a few pieces of 12in by 3in Baltic timber on board the Cornwall. This was used for “tomming” heavy cargo on the outward voyage, and it is naturally being kept on board for further use when required. “As apparently some misconception •xists in the minds of the parties interested in the matter it might be just as well to explain that there is a difference in the class of timber used for dunnaging, etc., on the outward voyage and the timber required for dunnaging and the preparation of the • holds for the homeward voyage. Naturally a part 6f the timber used for dunnaging cargo 6n the outward voyage is kept on board for future use. If members of the shipping committee had made inquiries in the proper quarter they would have been conducted around the vessel by a responsible officer and shown the ship’s requisition book in which is recorded all the timber ordered in New Zealand.”