Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 28, No. 1. 1965.
Bungling
Bungling
At the time of writing the terminal has been in use only two months and already it has been discovered that it cannot cope with its first large ship, the 28,164 tons Orcades.
At the Board meeting on the 28th January. 1965, Mr. G. A. Brown stated "... nobody told the board that there were limitations to the terminal and that's the thing I am disappointed in." He seems to overlook the fact that the Board authorized the plans and therefore this statement can be taken as an admission that the plans were studied and passed by people without sufficient knowledge of the project. These are the same people who are planning the port streamlining scheme!
The third reason for Wellington's slow rate of turn-round, the strained relations between employer and employee, can mostly be attributed to the shortage of labour. In 1962 the total bureau register strength (the number of waterfront workers) was set at a limit of 7124 workers for all ports. The actual strength was 6778.