TAURANGA HARBOUR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2410, 16 March 1915, Page 7

TAURANGA HARBOUR

• . _< . t: ac COULD BE MADE EQUAL TO THE BEST - . fi, Captain Maxwell, assistant superiri- £ tendent in New Zealand for the Shaw, 1? Savill. and Albion Company, recently ?F visited Tauranga to report on the harbour, for the guidance of the- Tauranga Chamber ; of Commerce. This body has for a long time been agitating for a direct conneotion with Wellington by steamer, and the hope is cherished that with a good harbour assured such a service would be established. At, present the. products of the' Bay of Plenty are as early on the Auckland B ] market as those of the North of Auck- B land district, and the - competition bo- a | t'ween the two big;districts does not fa- C vour the producer. The Wellington si season is a good deal later, and it is;. argued that if the Bay'Of Plenty pro-' ducers could ship, direct to Wellington ai it would' be of mutual benefit. B In the course of his report, Captain Maxwell said, the Tauranga harbour was a fair one, but not a magnificent one. ti If necessity arose and the people cared to incur expenditure they could have L here a harbour which could be made to b< compare favourably with some of tho di best which New Zealand possessed. On a : the Napier, Gisb'ome, and Oainaru har- 'i' : hours tens of thousands of pounds had ci been expended, and at the present time al he thought he was correct in saying. re that not one of them is in as favour- ei able a as Tauranga as far as p the actual navigability of the port is r< concerned, and on Tauranga harbour 6i praotioally no money had been spent. Within the harbour entrance Tauranga A had a fine harbour, but unfortunately b there were two spots which woilld pre- gi elude its use by ocean-going vessels. c< These two spots were the bar outside w and a nasty bend off Stony Point; There was an element of risk, said Captain Maxwell, in navigating the channel, ci and it would not be safe for him to re- p commend bis company to send its ships J3 to this port. He did not think the bar p. and the bend would be difficult to re- h move, but these were both questions for pi an engineer to deal with. d