THE OUTER HARBOR.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2343, 9 November 1908, Page 7

THE OUTER HARBOR.

LETTER FROM MR. MARCH ANT

The following letter lias been received by Mr. John Townley, Chairman of the Harbor Board, from Mr. F. W. March ant. t

'Sir, —At a meeting of your Board held on October 19th, certain matters in connection with the proposed outer harbor were discussed upon which I desire, with your permission, to make some remarks.

The first point which I think you should decide: Is your district content with the present lightering service for the conveyance of passengers ri d goods between shipping and the shore? If so, then there is no more to be said. You cannot effect any real improvement in your river port, try as you may, and spend all the money you can on it. Its physical conditions and relation to the open sea render that a hopeless attempt. If then you come at last to adopting an outer harbor scheme in real earnest, I press upon you the claims of the harbor I designed. My scheme was approved by the firm of Messrs. Coode, Son, and Matthews, M.M. Inst. O.E.j admittedly the most experienced and trusted engineers in the world in the speciality of harbor design and construction. That approval was given after a critical examination of the locality by Mr. Wilson, a member of the firm, and after a most exhaustive examination of me personally, lasting nearly two days, ik which my evidence was taken in writing, and the whole matter submitted to Sir Win. Matthews, the senior partner of the firm, for his opinion. What more could your Board or any other public body want in the Avay of examination of a scheme?

The harbor I propose is capable of indefinite extension in generations to come. By an extension of the firstarm of the breakwater and the construction of an enclosing wall from the beach on the westward side of the harbor, an outer anchorage would be formed, leaving the harbor I now propose as an inner basin.

The scheme I submitted is very much more extensive than -your district will need for many years to come. Given extensions of wharfage it Avon Id accommodate more and larger ships than Lyttelton iioav does. In fact, Avitk .the Avharf proposed, an Atlienic fully loaded could be easily berthed alongside it, and that Avith plenty of AA-ater under her keel. The comparison between a harbor of refuge and a commercial port docs not seem to be quite clearly understood at your Board table. The definitions are as under:

“The term harbor of refuge is applied to that special class of harbors which from their position and size serve as a refuge for vessels overtaken by a storm, where they can ride in safety until the gale has subsided.” There is no artificial harbor of refuge in New Zealand. Even in the case of the large and important harbor of Wellington, vessels cannot safely enter it in south-easterly gales of certain strength. They have to make either for the open sea or else take shelter under some natural coastal projection.

“Commercial harbors are ,the great terminii of the highways of the sea. Their province is the 'accommodation of the mercantile marine during the operations of loading and discharging of cargoes and for the transactions of trade.”

It Avould be a very heavy southeasterly sea indeed Avhich Avould disturb the shipping in the harbor I designed, and this occasional disturbance occurs more or les* frequently in every harbor'.

I note that your Board is having some trial shots put- in the quarry I suggested at Waihirere. I would point out that such a trial is no indicaton of the cost of getting the stone, as for breakAyater purposes, such a place Avould be mined and several tons of gunpoAvder fired at one blast. The •cost per ton of stone obtained by the operation avouM be very much less than that obtained by the single shot system of quarrying.