SHIPS PASS PORT?

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20065, 23 March 1935, Page 8

SHIPS PASS PORT?

BOARD DISCUSSES MATTER EXPLANATION BY CHAIRMAN At yesterday’s meeting of the Timaru Harbour Board, the chairman (Mr G. T. Dawson) made reference to the remarks of Mr P. W. Young at Wednesday night’s meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in regard to the harbour. Mr Dawson said that at the meeting of the Chamber, Mr Young had said: —“The questions touched on were of vital importance to South Canterbury, and only recently they had had an instance of wool being sent to Dunedin for shipment. In the last three weeks, three ships had been stopped from coming here on account of their draught being too great to allow them to come in, and each ship should have been worth £IOOO to the port. The Timaru dredge had gone to Oamaru, and had deepened the harbour there by six inches, and goods had been sent from Timaru to Oamaru to be shipped. . . Mr Dawson said that inquiries had been made from the National Mortgage and Agency Co, and they had said that they had never known of a case where cargo had been sent to Oamaru for shipment, unless it was a very small parcel. Dalgety and Co., knew of no such instance, and the New Zealand Shipping Co., referring to the Ruahine, had said that it was never intended that the vessel should call at Timaru. Messrs D. C. Turnbull and Co. had not had a ship during the last three weeks. The shipment of wool to overseas in other ports had not reduced the work which the waterside workers would have received one iota. The Zealandic had visited Timaru recently, but it had

evidently been in the interests of shipping to have the wool sent to Port Chalmers. The difference to the Board had been £79, and this represented the difference between the dues paid by the small ships and what the larger vessels would have paid, yet it went out to the public that the ships would have been worth £IOOO each to the Board. These were statements made public by irresponsible people. The wharfage was exactly the same for the smaller vessels as for the larger ones, and so far as the waterside workers were concerned, the position was the same. That was the position so far as the Zealandic was concerned. The Ruahine was in Wellington, and the same thing applied there. She had not been scheduled to come to Timaru, and it had not been on account of her draught that she had not come here. T think it is time this was shown up,” said the chairman. “It is a gross exaggeration of the position at the port. Some people seem to be ready to fasten on to anything and use it against the harbour.” Mr W. H. Orbell said that he was present, and Mr A. M. H. Shirtcliff had explained the position. Mr T. B. Garrick: It is rather strange you did not protect the port. Mr Orbell: What could I say after what Mr Shirtcliff had said? Mr Garrick: You should have got in first. Mr R. S. Goodman said that the Zealandic would have come back to Timaru to get the wool if the port had been able to accommodate her. Mr W. T. Ritchie: That is the point.

Mr Orbell: She went to Dunedin and got practically a full load of wool, and probably she was not able to come back here.

The chairman: It has not made any difference. Mr Goodman: Yet it has. We are not thinking of the money. The secretary: The National Mortgage agent had said that the vessel would have been drawing 32 feet.

Mr A. R. Guild said that they would have to go a long way back to bring in a vessel like that. To his mind the whole trouble lay not in the depth of water but in the fact that Timaru had had a wool sale cut out. This was a big grain growing district, and in the wool season the stores had very little room for grain. Only those which did not handle wool could take the grain. It was not only wool but other commodities which were affected. Mr Bradley said that they would never know how many ships passed the port, because the itineraries were fixed at headquarters.