Napier Harbour Dredging

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 125, 12 June 1937, Page 7

Napier Harbour Dredging

NAUTA.

Sit, — -There are various serious points which yoxir reporter miiesed when reporting Mr T. M. Geddis 7s addrests on the harbour question to the Napier j braqch of. tlxe- Labpur Party.. , ; First, Mr Geddis said that to con-; struct tho fairway Ixttle dredging had to be done, as .30 feet of water' M.L.W.S.T. was found well ixlsxde the; mole. When .confroixted With the. Nautieal Almanac, which 'sliows tbat1 nowhere dn the Napier Breakwator; Harbour is. there a depth of 30 feot inside the Auckland" Eoek, Mr Geddis still maintained that there was deep. water to 30 feet M.L.W.S.T. -inside tho mole. This conflict between the chairman; of the Napier Harbour Board and ' tho Nautieal Alnxan'ae is a very serious rnatter andeed. The Nautieal Almanac i js the oificial publication of the New; Zealand Government and has for its, accuracy the backing . of the Government, lf this publication is wrong it is : the duty of the . chairman to acquaint* the Government. of, the position ammediately, To. anyone, with no matter 1 Ixow small sea training, the fact that • tho accuracy of the almanac has been questioned will come as a great slxock. On the accuracy of this publication depends the safety of lives and vessels. ' iWhen Mr Geddis etates that twothirds of the dredging is completed he : ns assuming, I take it, that there is: 30 feet M.L.W.S.T. inside the mole. ! Now, supposing the official publicationto be correct, which shows that 30 feet M.L.W.S.T. is not reached until sea- ; Ward of Auckland Rock, there will ba j necessax'y i'ar more dredging than has ; already beexx done. — i.e., not one-half of the dredgihg has been done. ■; A piece - of rock was shown to 3Ur ! Geddis which was tso hard that dt would , cut glas3. This is said to come from a reef at the beginning of tlxe fairway, ' and , we -were told by Mr Geddis that the reef was 18 inches thick and that the Hapai could not dredge it, but that the Whakarire could. At Auckland the Hapai dredged between Central Wharf and Northern Wharf, which was ali rock. The Auckland dredge as a newer, seavier and more powerful dredge having triple-expansion engines as against the compound engines of the Whakarire, her buckets are better, and sbe was built for hard material. There are other points, hut this letter is already too long. I, together with practieally every person who listened to Mr Geddis, want his undertaking to be a success. It would be madness to wish it otherwxse, seeing Ixow much money is being spent; but Mr Geddis has still to convince hxq that his optimism is -iiist.ififlr'i. — Tnirw otn

Napier, Juno 10. 1937,