HARBOR BOARD.

Evening Star, Issue 4035, 1 February 1876, Page 3

HARBOR BOARD.

The fortniihtly meeting of the Harbor, Board was held this nftempon ; present, the 9upe'intende: t (in the chair), Messrs'M‘Kinnon, M’Neil, Reid, Davie, andTurnbulL

The Town Clerk wrote asking, on behalf of the Corporation, for pOrmi-sion to constmot a branch line of ,ra Iway from the Clutha line.to the Corporation Gas Works across a portion ef the j Board’s land for the purpose of carrying cpal;> -His. Honors We, will havs to the permission of* the majority df> ! the citizens > there. —Mr , Reeves moved that the matter be referred ,to the Board’s J engineer torarort. The line would i rpbab y save from L6OO to L9OO a year to the Corporation, who \yould u o doubt be willingto pay money for the concession.—His Honor mentioned that the promoters of the Portobelio Railway line were taking the necessary leg* * powers'to have it constructed. When theline was! constructed a aiding from it toThe Gasworks might be made. The Board could not override the Act of last se : sionof the Assembly. He moved,'- as an amendment—" That the .Moord approves of the object in view, and will offer ho obstacle to the Corporation.”—Mr Tewsley thought the Amendment was premature, and Mr M'Neil that the Board should not approve of the app’ication till they knew further of it. —The original motion was carried. Consideration of an offer by Mr Smith, on behalf of the Kaitangata Coal Company, to sell, the large shed on the Jetty street jetty to the Board for L 350 was deferred till the Board was acquainted'of the condi; ions on -which it wad erected. ■

A fortnight’s leave of absence was granted to : Capt. Orkney, Deputy Harbor-master. Jt was decided to dispense with the services of the inspector on the battray street wharf, who it appeal e J wa < o .ly to be engaged while the’work of pi e driving was being gone on with. „The Engineer, reporting on the tenders previously opened for an iron hull to the dredge New Era. stated that R. Spar ow and Co’s, whose tender was the lowest, was in accordance with the tond.tions. The time required for completion—viz., fourteen mouths—arose, he believed, through a misapprehension on the part of the tenderer of the time required to obtain the necessary plates from Britain; If the firm could find, alter further consideration, . that: the. time cOuld be reduced to eight or nine months, he would advise its acceptance at the very reasonable price mentioned—via, L 7,657 7s.—lt was decided to refer Kincaid and M‘Queen’s tender, along with. Sparrow’s, back to i the Engineer for further consideration. ■' ■

The expenditure for' January amounted to L3joßß ; * 12s lOd; the receipts were L 1,782 3s sd. / _ The following report from Mr Simpson* the Board’s Engineer, was read ; the honor to hand you in the usual report of the Inspector of' Works the* record of works for .the month of January. It will be seen that on account of, the necessary periodical overhaul of thedredges and “ Peninsula, ,the dredging of the EaW street channel has been limited. The wharf extension works are drawing to a close, the piles hav.ng all been - driven with the exception ot a few tenders, towards theend.of the contract. , The.material .through which the piles have been (driven latterly has been very irregular in respect of consistency, inasmuch that while in some of the pier's the piles have only gone to the crfew of 2sin. to the blow of a ram, pulling lira, in', others they have yielded at the •laab now, as mneh as sin , and that at a depth •of eSftin the bed, or 29ft below low-wntcx level. With such soft material to construct against the Measure, exerted by the -rocky material deposited behind has caused a slight divergence out from the straight line of wharf to the extent of j a ;few inches: This result,' : no doubt, is ; mainly due to the resistance offered .by the sheet [piling of. the; old training wall, and although by the . terms of the contract the contractors are bound'to remove such timbers when ; they may interfere with, the new stevedore, the . difficulty and great expense—-I may say. almost impossibility—of exacting them has deterred me from insisting upon • such, being done.. The contractors of course must eventually draw the piles into their proper line and trace tnein, so that a like occurrence may be obviated. As a further protection in the softer places,, I propose to dispense with the balance of the sheet'.pDing, and ml in : between the Piles to a safe standing slope with rock material which will, while reducing the • pressure by the absence of the continuous surface presented by the sheeting, greatly increase the stability of the bed around the main piles.

The report of the Inspector of Works showed an; abstract of the dredging to be : “New Era, 1 ' ‘370 punfe— yds.; side dredge, 82 punts—--1,394. yds.: “ PChJnsula,” 451 punts. 1 The erection of leading lights'was stated to' be advigorously.