THE MOUNT FAVOURED AS PORT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 33, 15 December 1950, Page 5

THE MOUNT FAVOURED AS PORT

COMMITTEE MAKES ITS REPORT A deep-water site at Mount Maunganui, the, Tauranga Harbour, has been recommended to the Government for development as an overseas port serving the Bay of Plenty. Announcing the findings of a special committee of inquiry the Minister of Works, Mr Goosman, said it was hoped that discussions would be initiated shortly between the Tauranga Harbour Board and Government departments to determine questions of railway access and land for port development.

The committee considers Tauranga to have substantial advantages over Whakatane and proposes that the development of Mount Maunganui should proceed in stages. The work should be undertaken by the Tauranga Harbour Board, which, it is stated, should be able to finance the project without assistance from the State and without any extension of its area and powers of rating.

The report makes it plaijn that the committee’s recommendations are based on the future output of timber and wood products from the exotic forests and says that the evidence did not satisfy members that primary produce was yet available in the Bay of Plenty in sufficient quantity to justify an export port on this ground alone. However, a policy of decentralisation of shipping and the natural development of the district may eventually make this desirable.

Discussing alternative proposals for the development of ’Whakatane instead of Tauranga, the committee states that the Whakatane harbour would be unable to handle shipping until development was substantially completed. This would occupy up to seven years. The cost might we'll exceed £2.4 million 4 and members were of the opinion that the scheme was economically unsound.