TAURANGA HARBOUR

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 81, 17 September 1947, Page 5

TAURANGA HARBOUR

DEEP-SEA PORT SUGGESTED PROPOSAL FROM OPOTIKI Advice that at the last monthly meeting of the Opotiki Borough Council the question of the development of the Bay Plenty was discussed and it was decided to write and ask the t-Tauranga Borough Council, and also the Harbour Board, if they had ever considered the question of developing the harbour into a deep sea port, was received from the Opotiki council, at the monthly meeting of the Tauranga Borough Council recently.

The letter from Opotiki stated that it had felt for a long time that the Tauranga harbour could and should be used for the development of the Bay of Plenty. “We feel there is a big future ahead of it with direct shipping facilities to other ports,” added the letter. “Ships from Tauranga could take all the produce from as far east as the Cape and west around and beyond Katikati, also the timber that is being exported from Rotorua and Taupo districts. It would save hundreds of miles of transport.

“All goods and manures could be. brought direct to Tauranga and the smaller towns could be supplied by smaller draught vessels that could cross our bars at anytime the weather permitted.”

The Opotiki council explained that this letter did not point out all the possibilities of the port, but it did ask the Tauranga council to give it thought and go into the question. In moving that the Opotiki Borough Council be thanked for its suggestion, the Mayor stated that the question should be referred to a conference to be held at an early date of all the parties concerned. Cr. C. F. Washer, when, supporting the Mayor’s suggestion, expressed the view that it was time that a move was made in the direction suggested by Opotiki. He pointed out that a move was afoot at present for the linking up of the railway to Putaruru which would mean that the whole of the Taupo area would be served by Auckland. The motion was carried.