HARBOR BOARD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 166, 22 October 1910, Page 3

HARBOR BOARD.

MONTHLY MKETIMi. The ordinary monthly meeting of the New Plymouth Harbor' Hoard, held yesterday,'was attended by the chairman (Mr.'.l. IS. Cnnitett), Messrs Newton King. K. Dockrill. 11. Price, C. A. Wilkinson, 1). Hughes, and E. Maxwell. HAUHORMASTER'S REPORT. Captain Newton (harbormaster) reported as follows:—For the five weeks ending 25th inst., 27 steam vessels have worked the port inwards and outwards, of the aggregate tonnage of 24,142. The total imports have been 7044 tons, of which 1154 tons were coal (812 tons for private use and 342 tons for the Railway Department). The exports amounteel to 1183 tons of general produce. Owing to general bad weather, a number (if vessels have passed this port, to enable them to pick up their time-table running. The dredge Thomas King has worked on 21 days, removing 107 loads of sand, equal to 15.760 tons. Having had a long spell of westerly winds, the sand has come into the harbor in large quantities, the Thomas King being busy removing it al lthe time. DEEDO EM ASTER'S REPORT.

Mr. J. R. Kuowles (dredgemaster) reported.—.Since .September 15, 979 cubic yards have .been lifted by the buckets and deposited at sea, including 130 boulders from 4c\vt. to 1 ton in weight, the nett dredging time being 16 hours 44 inin. With the pump 10,102 cubic yards were lifted and deposited at sea, the average pumping time per load being 40.5 minutes, the minimum: being 29 minutes and the maximum 56 minutes per load. On live days, from 26th to 30th September, 25 loads were lifted; on two days six loads were averaged, but some little time was lost experimenting with the pump at the end berth, and it will take considerably over the average time to load the hopper alongside the wharf at the projected deep-sea steamer berth. ■From 3rd October a good deal of time has been lost due to stress of weather. On Monday we had to pump under shelter of the .breakwater, and on the 4th the sea was too heavy to work the pump. As the wind and sea continued very threatening, it was decided to blow down the main boiler for quarterly cleaning and inspection before the vessel was taken over from the builders. I am pleased to say that in my long experience with marine boilers I have never seen one in better order, and the ordeal of banking fires every night is very trying on boilers. While I am specially pleased with the conditions of the main boiler, the main and auxiliary machinery are also in first-class order, and the maniier in which the plant as a whole has come through the maintenance period relleets credit on the designers and builders; and t would like to point out how much your Hoard is indebted to the able services of an experienced naval architect like Mr. Campbell in the earlier stages of design and construction, and to the Union W.N. Co., Ltd., for allowing their building superintendent to act in your Hoard's interests. From my constant observation of the working of the plant in both departments I am quite certain that the vessel will do all that is expected of her, and I have no doubt whatever if the dredging operations are carried out systematically that in due time the deep-sea steamers will be berthed at the wharf. The foreman has carefully sounded over the area lately drained inshore from pile H> to pile 11, and as you will see from the plan the soundings taken in distances of 10ft arc remarkably uniform considering the nature /)f the bottom. Mr. F. VV. Marchant, M.1.0.E., lays stress on the fact that each foot of berthage gained inshore is worth £4OO per foot, so that the approximate value of the work already carried out represents a total of £]i6,ooo. In closing, I would like to mention that in performance of my duties as guarantee engineer for the builders, I have received every assistance and courtesy from the officials and employees of your Board, and I am proud of having had some little share in the making of one, of the coming ports of the Dominion. Mr. Marchant (consulting engineer) said he was pleased to say the work on the dredge was going on very smoothly. He asked the Board to procure ten new dredge buckets. He had been making enquiries about getting them made in Dunedin, but as they were of a particular pattern he considered it best to get ten from the Home Country and, sa,y, two from Dunedin manufacturers for a trial. The Home price was only £2O each. Now that the dredge was entirely in their own hands, he did not anticipate further breakages, unless, of course, those that would arise from pure accident. The alterations made had resulted in the saving of all material dredged with the exception of the very find sand. Now they could load her up full, but prej vious to the alterations being made when the dredge was one-third full everything else went overboard.

Regarding the suggestion to get the buckets made in Dunedin Mr. Marchant' said ,in reply to a member of the Board, j that the work had been offered local)v, but the firm would not undertake it. Mr. Hughes said he was pleased to see than an effort was being made to get the work done in Dunedin. It was sometimes said that we could not make anything in New Zealand. The chairman said he was now satisfied that with the staff they had they would get good work from the dredge He had admitted he had never been before, lie thought that it would be better to take a little more time and got the work done properly. He knew the engineer wanted to get on with it, so that large vessels would the sooner be able to come in, but he counselled taking a month or two longer over the work.

Mr. Kins asked if the Board were not departing from llic original object of gettine tin' bi<; boats in as quickly as possible. Could not th<' work fu> done later? Mr. Maivliant: That is what I wanted. It was decided to procure t.en buckets from Home and two from Dunedin, as recommended by the engineer. ft was decided, on Hie motion of Messrs .Maxwell and Wilkinson, to dredge ill-shore to ii siillicicnt depth for .lighter boats, instead ol ceasing dredging at pile j B . * ' SUPRUINTKNDKNT'S Iri'OßT. Mr. F. Henderson, siiperinteiident of works, wrote ;is follows: YVTiarf widening < 'oppcritig and felting of pilcsJiax been curried on throughout Hie month. The shore end of tliP wharf has been opened up. and a longi- | tudinal waling attached to connect, a double coaming of ."iiu Oregon planking lias been built round I lie hopper of the 'l'aritiitu (as instructed by Mr. Marchiiut), which has eU'ected a considerable saving of the finer sand and a more equal distribution of the load in the hopper. The diver has been down on five days blasting and removing stones from the in-shore dredging area, and about 12 tons of the larger pieces have been pulled up at the wharf. With the

report was a chart of soundings taken l'bv|Mr. Henderson on the 29 th tilt, over tne'area. dredged by Mr. Kuow.les with the 'buckets. The total length dredged is between piles 10 and 10, a length of 1 SOft. Up to pile 13 (120 ft) the cut is 90ft wide and 10ft deep; from these inshore to pile 10. the cut is 70ft in width and averaged lift in depth. He had. therefore, started dredging at pile I! fand had widened out the cut to 120 ft. hoping thereby to ensure easier working. I The weather during last week had been unfavorable for dredging, as owing to a heavy run in the water, and to the bow anchor failing to hold, the vessel could not be kept steady enough for safe working. Therefore, for the last three days sand-pumping had been carried on while a 20-ton concrete mooringblock had been substituted for the ancliov. This block' had been placed 600 ft out from the end of the wharf and 100 ft to the east, in a hole 30ft deep at low water, and was therefore out of the way of all shipping. The following were the" details for the week ending 16th inst.:— -With buckets (2y 2 days), 3 loads, respectively 400, 280 and 295 tons; with pump (one day), 3 loads, each 400 tons; for 2'/, days the dredge was laid up through rough weather. The report concluded: "With regret I have to report the death of Mr. George Bennett locomotive driver, a very old and faithful servant to the Board. As Ihere is now very little loco' running, work at the quarry having been discontinued, the occasional duties can be taken by Messrs .Sanger and Knapman. both of whom ihave loco drivers' certiPREVENTION OP SAND DRIFT.

Messrs Roy and Nicholson, solicitors, New Plymouth, wrote on behalf of Mr. J. W. Jackson, Smart road, Fitzroy, making application for a tenancy of portion (five or six acres) of the' Board's reserve at Fitzroy. Mr. Jackson had recently patented a process for the prevention of sand-drift, and he required a small area of sand-covered land for the. purpose of testing the process, by which he hoped to be able to reclaim land 'however badly it might be affected. The writer understood that the Fitzroy Town Board would have no objection' to the tenancy being granted. If successful with the process, the Board's property would be greatly benefited by the reclamation of the land and prevention of sand drift.—Referred to a committee consisting of the chairman, Messrs King and Dockrill for report.