COASTAL VESSEL DELAYED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22475, 9 January 1943, Page 4

COASTAL VESSEL DELAYED

Non-Arrival Of Farm Machinery

HASTINGS, January 8.

Hawke’s Bay farmers are seriously concerned at the hold-up of a small coastal steamer at Lyttelton. The cargo includes farm machinery needed for the present season’s work. News that after a delay of 27 days a crew had been secured is welcomed. The ship was held up because of the insistence of the original crew on improved quarters being provided for one of their members.

The non-arrival of the farm machinery is placing some farmers in this district at a serious disadvantage. Inquiries reveal that many crops of hay have already been cut but cannot be pressed until the necessary implements arrive. In the meantime these crops are subject to risks of serious deterioration. The harvesting of wheat and other grain is. in many instances, liable to delays through the lack of machinery which was expected to arrive last month.

The cargo for this district, it is believed, also includes equipment and spares for water services requiring urgent attention. Delivery of the equipment would have enabled a number of installations to be put into operation and have obviated the serious plight in which some farmers have been placed. On some properties the shortage of water has been acute this season. In places wells are dry that have not been dry for 25 years. Providentially, recent heavy showers have brought some relief. “For some time past we have been unable, because of a lack of materials, to obtain sufficient farm machinery,” said the manager of a business in Hastings. “So once the machinery has been made, it cannot be delivered too quickly. We are constantly receiving inquiries from farmers as to when machinery on order by them will be to hand. It seems almost incredible that such a trivial matter as accommodation for one man should hold up a vessel for a month.”