Stevedoring In

Ragtime

Madang

"Montoro" Leaves Copra

Behind

October 1. 11THEN the “Montoro” left Madang at TT five minutes past midnight on Sunday, Sept. 29, 1,500 bags of copra which the Production Control Board had ready for loading were left behind.

“Montoro” had been in port since the previous Sunday—exactly one week—and, as reported elsewhere in this issue, had approximately 1,800 tons of cargo to shift.

It was calculated that, at the present rate of stevedoring in the Territory this would take six days; but the con fusion, delay and exasperation in Madang outdid even the most pessimistic esti mates.

By Thursday night—the 26th—it was evident that, at the rate at which load ing was being carried out, there was no chance of getting the ship away by mid night, and it was a case of staying idly in port on Sunday and resuming loading on Monday, or of sailing without a full cargo. The District Labour Officer had already made it clear that he would not permit the natives to work the ship on the Sunday.

“Montoro” consumes 12 tons of coal per day while in port, and delays at other ports had already made it necessary for her to go to Bowen, Qld., on the return trip to Australia in order to take on coal.

It had also become necessary to put in somewhere for water. Water had not been available in Moresby, Lae or Madang owing to breakdowns in water services, or drought. Captain Wilding expected to go into Milne Bay, Papua, to take on water for the return trip.

On Friday the captain stated that he was willing to stay the necessary extra time and load all the copra if the various authorities were willing to work on after midnight on Saturday until loading was completed; but, if this were not possible, then, in view of the coal and water situa tion and the necessity of maintaining some sort of schedule, he would leave at midnight on Saturday.

“Montoro” sailed at five minutes past midnight and 1,500 bags of badly needed copra remained behind!

Administration officials and ordinary Territorians alike all wail loudly that shipping services from Australia (and the consequent slow arrival of supplies) is one of the greatest nightmares of the present era in the Territory.

Yet there seemed in Madang to be no great agitation on the part of any indi vidual or section of the community to get the “Montoro” loaded and quickly away—although by doing so it would ensure an earlier return of the ship. No one (except Captain and officers, and some passengers who had grilled in Madang for a week) manifested the slightest degree of annoyance when it seemed that the ship would be there in Madang well on into the next week.

Perhaps the fact that cold beer was available in the ship’s bar, but was non existent on shore, had something to do with that attitude.

MADANG’S bottleneck could be partly cleared in either of two ways.

One would be the construction of a Customs shed right at the wharf, where it was before the blitz. This, could be a temporary structure built quickly from

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the tons of material left behind by the Army.

Alternatively (but not so good) tram lines could be put in from the wharf to the sheds now in use about two hun dred yards up the road.

Both would do away with the lorries, in which goods are now transported and which, being in a state of acute disre pair, are more often than not out of commission. During this last visit of the “Montoro,” there were seldom more than three trucks in operation at one time, consequents the ship’s winches, instead of being used to the fullest extent, were idle for three-parts of their time.

TRUCKS are either Administration property, or hired from privae con cerns or individuals. No one with any regard for their vehicles will hire them out to be driven by the native drivers. This also puts a brake on pro ceedings.

It is said by the ship’s officers that the only time that there was efficient stevedoring in Madang was on one occasion when they were transporting Australian Servicemen back to Australia.

Soldiers, informed that the sooner the ship was cleared, the sooner they would be home, turned to with a will, manned the trucks and shifted the cargo in record time.

Another improvement would be to arm each native working in the hold with a hook for pulling bags of copra into posi tion. Their feeble attempts to granple with these large bags are calculated to drive officers to blasphemy, or worse.

It is rumoured that all stevedoring will

revert to private firms in the New Year.

This will be the greatest improvement of all. At present there are three or four Government Departments with a hand in proceedings, and none of them shows the slightest willingness to co operate with any other.

It was noted, however, that after the Captain’s ultimatum, work on the wharves and ship went on at increased tempo, and all of the cargo might have been lifted had not the local power station given up the ghost early on Sat urday evening. Copra sheds were then illuminated solely by the headlights of trucks.