LIGHT ON CASTLE POINT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 186, 12 January 1912, Page 8

LIGHT ON CASTLE POINT.

OBJECTIONS TO THE LOCATION. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The objections pu;t forward 'by the Shipmasters' Guild as to the location of the new east coast light on Castle; Point, instead of Flat Point, were co«.-< mented upon by the Minister of Marine (Hon. J. A. Millar) to-day, the official ' { reasons -being given for departing from the shipmasters' recommendation. "You cannot get elevation enough for a light at Plat Point," said Mr. Millar, "and vessels would be courting danger if they went in towards the coast to look for it, because of outlying sunken rocks. Most of the local shipmasters were in favor of Flat Point, 'but when an examination was made by Captain Blackburn and Captain Bollons, as well as Messrs. Allport (secretary of Marine) and Holmes (engineer), it was found impossible to place a light high enough to give it sufficient range, but a most serious thing is that off Flat Point, for a distance of three or five miles, there are sunken rooks. It is a well recognised principle among lighthouse authorities all over the world that you must never put a light at the back of danger, because shipmasters, when the weather is thick, knowing a light is there, will be tempted to go closer to danger until it is trapped. On the other hand, at Castle Point there is a splendid site for a tower 100 feet above high water, enabling a light to be shown at a height of 170 leet, giving it a range of about twenty miles in thick weather. There is only a distance of about sixty miles between Palliser light and the proposed light on Castle Point. Each has a twenty-mile radius, so that there would only be a gap of twenty miles between the lights in clear weather, and it is a poor master who cannot navigate that distance safely. A decision to adopt Castle Point was announced last March. It is two months since tender* were advertised for the construction of the tower, and the whole apparatus for light has been arranged for in England by this time, yet objections to Castle Point have only just been made."