HARBOR BOARD.

Evening Star, Issue 4101, 19 April 1876, Page 4

HARBOR BOARD.

The ordinary fortnightly meeting of the Board held yesterday was attended by the Superintendent (uTthe chair),-Messrs Turnbull, Reid, Ritchie, Tewsley, Reeves, add M‘Kinnon. ' Ten of the men employed on : the dredge, memoralisfeii ‘for an increase in wages pfthreepence per hour, because their work was 1 more laborious and dirtier than the work employed on the wharves and jetties. It wasstatedthat the men worked.according to thp sjate of the tide—sometimes from ten to twelve hours a day, the remuneration being one' Shilling an hour.—M ‘Kinnon said the men only , earned five shillings a day when at Port 'Chalmers, but he was under the impression that they were making something like wages at present.—The Secretary read from the r wages list, that the dredge Rands’ pay. ranged from LI 14s 6d to L 3 and over*.—The request was declined. Mr A. R. Sims asked for monetary assistance in establishing a School of - Navigation at this Port.-—The Chairman and Mr Reeves thought the idea should be encouraged, but Messfe M'Kinnon and Ritchie did not see how the’Harbor JJoard were to do it- —Mr Reid thought it would be better to get the

harbor dredged, find to navigate that first, -r-iThe application was referred to Captain Thomson. T Captain Thomson reported re wharf act commodation, that if the unfinished part of Rattray street wharf (which is about 385 ft in length) Was completed and access given to the cross wharf by deepening to 7ft at low water, there would be sufficient wharf ac'r ccmmodation at . Dunedin to meet the existing trade ; but in addition to such accommodation- be recommended an extension of the goods shed on Rattray street wharf of not less than I,oooft to meet the present requirements for the coasting and interprovincial steamers. He further recommended that the-wharves should be lighted with gas without delay. Assuming that there would

be a channel with 14ft at high water neap tide (Mr, Simpson observes that 14ft at low water spring*'rides must be meant) all through, for th^-vessels of that draught that visit the Port 2,000 ft additional wharfage would be required, and he suggested that the other side of the proposed interprovin cial steamer dock should be formed parallel with the present side formed by Rattray street wharf, in order to. serve the double! purpose of providing berthage and a breakwind to the vessels that are at present exposed with their broadside to the full force of .the S,AW,gale, r Mr-M‘Mregor wrote offering to construct, arid tb‘hand over to the Board, 740 lineal yards of concrete wharf complete, including filling behind, metalling roaa the full width, and building the retaining wall for drays to back against, for L 75 per lineal yard, or a lump .sum of L 55,500, as against the lowest tender of L 45,000 for timber. That he is willing to accept all’ risks, and to guarantee the success of his designs ; and to give any reasonable security for carry mg out the work and maintaining it , for three years. Appended was a comparative return which showed a saving of L 21,785 in concrete over

timber in ten years, and of LIS, 720 in twenty years. The Engineer wrote as follows Through the secretary) X have been requested by the Board to report upon what I would recommend as the cheapest and most expeditious method of cutting the proposed deep water channel and disposing of the dredged material, without reference to the question of reclamation of land. In reply, I have to state .that the two works of dredging and reclamation appear to be so inseparably connected that the one must necessarily follow the other, and receive equal consideration. Even if the dredging of the channel •T.l . . . _

were considered separately, then,’ as I believe that the tidal area of the harbor should only be contracted to an extent consistent with that encroachment upon its limits (such as I recommend) indispensably necessary for providing accommodation for trading facilities, no method presents itself to my mind whereby the -disposal of the dredged material can be so economically and expeditiously accomplished as by its utilisation iri reclamation under the process and in the; manner recommended iri my report to the Board, of date the 16th August, 1876.”

THE NEXT STEP, • The Secretary informed the Board that since the purchase of the steamer Peninsula the cost of towage had been 4s 3d per punt, whereas the former price paid was 7s. A ; return showed that the average cost of. dredging, &c,, had been Is Ud per yard, the work done by the New Era having cost llfd, and that by the side dredge Is 7|d. He also stated that the New Era dredge appeared to get through as much work per horse-power as the dredges used on the Clyde. The work done by the Board’s present dredging appliance was about 4>ooo cubic feet per horse power per annum* which was equivalent to what was done by, the best on the Clyde. The Chairman, addressing the engineer who had been called in: It appears from your report that yon are of opinion that the channel cannot he deepened advantageously ' unless reclamation be proceeded with simultaneously ? • 1

Mr Simpson : I think that is the cheapest way, as the alternative course would be to take the stuff outside the Heads. The Chairman : The Board is anxious to limit its operation to the actual requirements of the trade of the place, instead of goin<' into any large expenditure right off the reek It has been suggested that making a ditch and putting the stu'ff~?sn each side by means of shoot? would be an economical way of proceeding, , I understand that you do not approve of that plan ? Mr Simpson ; No. Considering that there are about 1,400,000 yards of stuff to he taken out of the channel, and that they would take up a great portion of the tidal area. I think that all engineers are agreed that the reduction of the tidal area should be as little as possible. Mr Reeves : Your calculation brings you, to the conclusion that, by dredging the harbor, the land can be reclaimed more cheaply than if the stuff were brought from the shore ? Mr Simpson: You cannot reclaim land* from the shore at a less cost than Is 6d perf yard. ' : The Chairman said that it appeared that the great objection to depositing the stuff on each side of the channel was the displace-

merit of the tidal water. There was also a risk of it getting back into the channel. Mr Ritchie said that the idea to he carried out was to bring up large vessels—the bigger the better—in the shortest possible time without the Board entering upon any very large undertaking, or being committed tp any great expenditure. The Chairman was afraid that it would not be possible to realise that idea without a large expenditure. Mr Tews ley pointed out that the main object of bringing Mr Gordon over had not been touched upon by him. He said he had no experience in dredging operations. Mr Rfeio (who occupied the chair after his Honor left) thought that the Board should §et a narrower channel, and one less deep, o long as they got it cheaper and more . expeditiously, even if the stuff did get back into it and had to be re-dredged, the saving of lime in getting up vessels 1 1 Bpnedin would be well worthy of consideration.

Mr Ritchie suggested that they should have a channel 13ft. or 15ft, deep and 50ft. wide. As a matter of fact, the majority of vessels which had arrived at the Port from Glasgow and London within the last two years did not draw more than 18ft of water, and many of them not more than 15ft or 16ft. A channel 12ft deep at low water would have enabled nearly every ship which had arrived at the Port within the last year or two to come up to Dunedin. Mr Simpson : You must add 2ft to the depth, as you cannot drag a ship along the bottom of the channel. Two feet are required to enable the vessel to be steered. Mr M'Kinnon thought the Board had decided long ago on what operations should be gone on with. After some further discussion, it was decided to adjourn the matter for a week.