THE HARBOR BOARD.

Evening Star, Issue 6727, 8 October 1885, Page 2

THE HARBOR BOARD.

The ordinary meeting of the Harbor Board was held this afternoor ; present— Messrs Ross (chairman), Mill, Duncan, Barnes, Elder, Roberts, A. Thomson, Wales, Cargill, J. B. Thomson, and Hislop. THE HARBOR WORKS. A letter was received from the Marine Department stating that a map was to be sent to the London Exhibition showing the harbor works of the Colony, and asking that the Board should furnish a small scale key. plan showing the progress of the harbor works at Dunedin up to date. ' Mr Elder said that before the information was given he wanted the Board to ascertain exactly what was* the depth of water in the harbor. If the map was to besent Home for the information of the world, something definite should be settled upon. The Chairman said he supposed the soundings reported could be submitted to the Board before being sent away. Mr Elder : Most -certainly they should be. Mr Barnes said that as there had been SO much unpleasantness about the soundings of the harbor, the Works Committee should spend a day with the Engineer and Harbormaster verifying them. Mr Cargill thought Mr Barnes's suggestion would not be complete unless he stipulated that the Committee should have diving-bells, bo that they would see whether the leads really touched the bottom. Really the. matter was a very simple one. The information could bo supplied Dy the Board's officers, and if the Board had no confidence in them they should be discharged. It was resolved to comply with the request made in the letter. THE PIER-MASTER. . The Harbor-master wrote stating that Captain M'Callum, who had acted as piermaster for the Government and deputy harbor-master for the Board, had received notice from the Government that his services in the former capacity would be no longer required. It was therefore necessary that he should be retained in the service of the Board. The Chairman said it was a move on the part of the Government to get the whole of Captain M'Callum's salary paid by the Board. '' The matter was referred to the Works Committee. DEPTH OF VICTORIA CHANNEL. Mr Elder brought under the notice of; the Board the speech made by Mr Mackerras, as chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, which had been sent Home to influence intending purchasers of the Board V debentures. He challenged the correctness of Mr Mackerras's statement with regard to the Victoria channel. Mr Mackerras had stated that there was a depth of 14ft at low water in the channel and 20ft 6in at high, and that this depth would be increased to 16ft within the next three months. Strange to say, a few days after this statement was made the Lady Dufferin, drawing 18ft ora, and coujd not come tip to Dunedin. The Timaru shortly afterwards arrived drawing 18ft Gin. Before she could come up she had to be lightened to 17ft at first and afterwards by, 3in more before she could come up. The Vessel was drawing 16ft 9in—(Mr J. B. TuoMsoK: Eleven)—and yet "She dragged a considerable distance in coming up.—(Mr Thomson: You say so.) He was speaking on the best authority. He quoted from the Harbormaster's soundings-book to prove that the depths were not so great as had been stated. He considered that the Board, by allowing Mr Mackerras's speech to go Home without contradiction, laid themselves open to the charge that they were getting people to take up debentures by means of false representations. The Chairman did not think Mr Elder's statement of the depth of the channel a fair one. It should be taken into consideration that the channel was silting up only at particular points, principally at Black Jack Point. REFORTS. Reports to the Board, as published in our issue of yesterday, were adopted. TENDERS. The following tenders were received for goods-shed at Rattray street wharf extension :—G. Dempster and Sons, L 1,489 6s 6d; A. Bain, L 1,448 16a Sd and L 1,421 6s 8d ; R. Davis, and Co., L 1,566 ; Dalby and Miller, L 1,539 3s; M'Millan and Moffat, L 1,456 14s and L 1,396 14s; R. Sanderlands, L 1,458 18s 5d and L 1,400 18s 5d ;R. L. Grey, L 1.517 13s 6d and L 1.344 13s 6d ; W. Baskett, L 1,577 12s and L 1,661 12s ;R. Martin, L 1,672. —Referred to the Chairman and Engineer, to accept the lowest or most eligible. The Board then adjourned. The Boulevard Voltaire jn Paris has just been made the theatre of as highly wrought a drama as ever appears in the domain of fiction—such a development of ill-regulated human passions as unfortunately is confined to no one nationality, language, or social condition. The architect Caudray, although married and having children, maintained a liaison with one Mdme. Bessier, who was the wife of a shopkeeper on the Boulevard Voltaire, and had an amiable husband and dutiful daughters. The lovers quarrelled, and during the shopkeeper's absence' from his place of business Caudray called upon, Mdme. Bessier, and with a pistol shot her dead. He then ended his own life by putting a bullet through his heart. M. Bessier soon after returned to his shop and stumbled over the dead bodies,' He had never believed the stories he had heard of his wife's inndelity, and the revelation came upon him so suddenly that his mind broke down, and he fled from the scene yelling his shame up and down the boulevard; a hopeless.maniac. . ." ~. ~r K , M \ Lord. Tennyson is at.it a&ain. He. is writing a sequel to " Becket. It is to be historic, dramatic, dyspeptic!, h j.: j