OTARAWAIRERE SUGGESTED AS DEEP-SEA PORT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 3, 27 February 1950, Page 5

OTARAWAIRERE SUGGESTED AS DEEP-SEA PORT

An old resident has written to the Beacbn suggesting that the logical place for a deep-water port for the Bay of Plenty is Otarawairere Bay. Certainly, there is ample shelter there, and he claims there is also ample depth for any vessel. Whether or not there is substance in his argument is for the experts to say, but here is what he says:—“Why all this controversy over a deep water port for the Bay? Opotiki says Tauranga should be the port. Now let’s see what has happened over the last 45 years. “Opotiki was the leading township for the Bay. Then the railway came to Tauranga. This gave ft a start and opened up its hinterland and any vessel up to 24ft draft could anchor at the Mount. But, later on, the Whakatane district started to move and Brier Town forged ahead of Opotiki. “Since then jealous and parochial controversy has been the vogue. It has always been known that Otarawairere Bay would make a firstclass deep water harbour, but the Whakatane settlers in those early days did not realise the potential wealth of their inheritance. The Rangitaiki had not been drained, and those great exotic forests were not planted. Galatea and Murupara were not in the stage of development, so that Otarawairere was ruled out.

Today the proposition lends itself to the future of the East Coast-Bay of Plenty, and it only wants an energetic Government to put the plan, into operation. “More, it would put our railway service on a sound commercial footing.

“On both sides of Otarawairere Bay there are reefs that bceak the currents and prevailing winds, so that the largest vessel afloat could berth in safety.”