WORKING TO CAPACITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 533, 10 December 1928, Page 12

WORKING TO CAPACITY

BUSY TIME ON RAILWAYS At the call of the primary producer Auckland wharves and railway yards have been worked at full capacity over the past week or so. Nor does there appear to be any possibility of a lull in the rush of business in the near future. During the four weeks ended December 28, approximately 291,000 boxes of butter will be lifted from the port of Auckland. Railway trucks will have to be found for all this, in addition to trucks for the heavy rush of other inward and outward traffic called for by the big increase in production throughout the Auckland Province. There still remains a fairly heavy weight of wool, left over from the 22,000 bales submitted at the last Auckland sale, to send overseas. This must be sent away as soon as possible. The freezing works are also demanding increased, ttention, with the killing tallies mounting weekly. With several thousand carcases passing over the killing floors daily, the call upon shipping space will be considerable. In addition, the demand for railway trucks, both inward and outward, for the works, will help to increase the difficulties of the Railway Department in meeting freight demands. From all parts of the Auckland Province stock is now beginning' to come forward to the works. Heavy Fertiliser Deliveries The first week of December saw the Railway Department hard put to meet demands. The month ushered in the reduced rates for fertilisers, and the works were booked to capacity with orders for immediate delivery. Thus, exceptionally heavy calls were made on the department for trucks outward from the Otahuhu yards. Three vessels with raw phosphates, which all arrived within the one week, added to the rush of work, the two factors making it almost impossible to avoid congestion in the Otahuhu yards. Some orders were necessarily lelayed a day or so. Some idea of the magnitude of the business the Railway Department is called upon to cope with can be gained when it is realised that the three phosphate steamers unloaded 18,317 tons. Taking an average truck load at 8 tons and the length of a truck at 17ft Gin, the length of the load from the three vessels would extend over seven miles. This, (within a week, in addition to the heavy outward traffic from the fertiliser works and the additional rush of business in other lines of primary produce. Outward cargo lifted from the wharves and railway sheds for transportation oLit of Auckland during the week ended at mid-day on Friday last, based on the department’s truck averages, amounted to approximately 76,115 tons. Thus is the prosperity of the country districts reflected in the cities.