PHOSPHATES LIKE WATER

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 113, 10 February 1928, Page 11

PHOSPHATES LIKE WATER

DIFFICULT TO HANDLE. Dominion Special Service. Auckland, February 8. The unloading of the steamer Indianola, which arrived from Casablanca, Morocco, on Tuesday night, is being delayed owing to difficulty in handling the cargo of phosphates. It is the first cargo of Moroccan phosphates to reach Auckland. The stevedores commenced to unload by means of grabs, the usual procedure with bulk phosphate cargoes. However, the Indianola’s cargo is dry and heavy like fine silver sand, and consequently it leaked out of the grabs as if they were sieves before they had reached the top of the hold. The stevedore next tried to unload with small iron skips, which proved better than the grabs, but a quantity leaked through sides of doors as the skips were being swung over on to the wharf. A further difficulty arose through the railway trucks being unable to contain the phosphates, which ' filtered steadily through numerous crevices. .The Railway Department has been requested to supply more efficient trucks. Phosphates in Morocco are obtained about 200 miles inland from Casablanca and are transported by rail to the port, where they are stored in elevators holding 20,000 tons. Vessels are loaded very expeditiously, the Indianola’s cargo of 7000 tons being shipped in six and a half hours. The phosphates are poured from elevators into the ship’s hold by means of spouts, on the end of which are flexible hoses, and the cargo is played into the hold like water. Another large shipment of Moroccan phosphates reached New Plymouth on Tuesday evening by the Kintyre.