THE HARBOR BOARD.

Evening Star, Issue 4209, 23 August 1876, Page 3

THE HARBOR BOARD.

At a special meeting of the Board held this afternoon there were present Messrs Reeves (in the chair), Davie, M'Kinnon, Ritchie, M'Neil, and Tewsley. The various committees reported that the tenders of Messrs Sparrow and Fulton for repairs to the dredge for L 167 Is, and of Mr John Edmonds for L 25 for removing the old jetty had been accepted. The action of the lighting committee in agreeing with the Corporation for the lighting of Rattray street wharf by meter, at 12a fid per 1,000 ft., the' Board to light and extinguish the lamps, was approved. The motion re the piece of land in Castle street of which Air Davie had given notice at last meeting was withdrawn, and in its place a resolution carried requesting the Government te take steps to secure the piece of ground in question for the Albany street school and its playground, and a small additional piece adjoining for the purpose of enlarging the playground. Mr M'Kinnon agreed to postpone for six weeks the motion of which he had given ; notice, viz., to remove the New Era to Port Chalmers to dredge the entrance to the railway pier—it being understood that by that time the channel across to Grant Braes, work from which the dredge could hardly be taken at the present time, would be completed. It was incidentally remarked that the dredge had been taken away from Port Chalmers because the work there so strained her old frame as to cause her to leak very much, but it was always the intention of the Board that whenever she received her new hull dredging operations at the Port should be resumed. A second motion in the name of Mr M'Kinnon—“That the Engine*r be instructed to bring up a report at the next meeting on the most favorable’means of keeping clear the inner and outer bars at the Heads, either by harrowing, dredging, or otherwise,” was agreed to. Mr Tewsley gave notice of the followi'he present arrangements for lighting the entrance to Dunedin harbor are unsatisfactory, and that the Chief HarborMaster, Air M'Kinnon, and the Secretary to the Board be requested to examine shipmasters and others, and report with the view of such representations being made to the Marine Board as may lead to redress of what is wrong.” In the conversational discussion that followed, reference was made to the intention at one time on the part of the Marine Department to have a second lighthouse erected on Cape Saunders ; and it was suggested that if that idea was going to be abandoned the present red light on Tairoa Head, which is only useful to vessels when they come close into the entrance, should be replaced by a white light. A letter was read from the Marine Department enclosing a notice to mariners published by the Admiralty’s hydrographer, in which was embodied the fact of a fog gong < now being sounded on Taiaroa Head during foggy weather. Some members of the Board remarked upon the fact that the Admiralty authorities did not see there was any reason for objecting to the use of the gong, as did the Marine Department of this Colony.