DEVONPORT AGHAST AT RECLAMATION COST

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 233, 21 December 1927, Page 14

DEVONPORT AGHAST AT RECLAMATION COST

HARBOUR BOARD DECIDES THAT BILL MUST STAND

When the Devonport Borough Council found what the real cost of the reclamation amounted to, it was aghast. It had expected to pay £2,000, but it found that the cost would be something like £3,200. So a deputation consisting of the Mayor and councillors and the town clerk and the engineer waited on the Harbour Board in committee, asking that the board would remit some part of the cost. The Mayor stated that the council had agreed to the scheme on representation that the reclamation would save the board the cost of a portion of the wharf and that the cost of a portion of the wharf and that dredging for navigation would be credited to the work. The report of the harbour engineer was that the figure, £2,000, was never suggested by him. It was not expedient to use the suction dredge to remove spoil from areas which will require to be deepened for navigation. Had this been done the cost certainly would have been higher. NO BENEFIT TO BOARD When reclamation was the primary object it is desirable to place the dredge in a position where it could obtain adequate supplies of suitable spoil.

T cannot see any benefit to the board from tho removal of the spoil which has been pumped ashore unless it should become desirable to berth deep-draught vessels at the cargo wharf. In this case the amount of spoil to be removed would be slightly lessened.

“The board will in any case have to bear the cost of dredging new berths, but it would be uneconomical to pump this ashore at Devonport. “I can see no reason for remitting any part of the cost of the filling-in of the reclamation wall,’* concluded the engineer’s report. The board adopted the engineer’s viewpoint.