The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1912. THE HARBOR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 230, 27 March 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1912. THE HARBOR.

As the work of harbor improvement progresses the wisdom of departing from the original plan of lengthening the breakwater and the wharf and providing berthage inshore becomes more "apparent. Berthage for a large vessel is now available, and the work of deepening the fairway approach is well under way. The wharf widening and short extension work should be out of hand in the course of a few months, and it will then be possible for big vessels to trade with New Plymouth. We do not mean that the harbor improvement scheme will have been completed by that time, but only that it will have sufficiently progressed to allow of large vessels to come in at high water. At present the berth alongside the wharf is l 6loft long by 200 ft wide, and 35ft deep at low water. To complete it the basin will need to be reduced another Bft, making it 33ft. The approach is to be deepened for a distance of from 1600 to 2000 ft and about 400 ft wide. At low water the depth is now about 15ft. It is intended to make this 25ft. The dredges are at present engaged on this work. Up to, the present aij area of only 130 ft by 110 ft has been done. Instead of cutting out the full ten feet it seem 3 to us better policy to dredge to a uniform depth of about 20ft, thus giving at high tide about 30ft of water, sufficient for the largest vessels trading to the Dominion. This "cut" finished, the dredges could be started on the work of providing "swinging room" near the deep-water berth for the larger vessels and extending the deep-water basin further inshore. This would practically mean the widening of the present berthage scheme from 200 ft to 500 ft at a depth of, say, 16ft inshore and 25ft outwards. It is recognised that in the near future further accommodation will be absolutely necessary, and it is also recognised by competent authorities that berthage accommodation inshore as against outward extension is the safest and in every way the most advantageous. This will take time and money. The dredging required will be of a nature that can only be performed by such a boat as the Paritutu. When the loan is all expended the Board will be unable to retain such a large and costly dredge as the Paritutu. The annual working and maintenance runs into about £7OOO. This is quite beyond what the Board could afford out of its ordinary account. Consequently all dredging of a nature that requires such a plant as the Paritutu, and which is essential for the expansion of the port within the near future, must be carried out immediately on completion of the present scheme, and the Paritutu sold and a smaller dredge, about half its capacity and cost of operating, procured. If, however, abnormal development takes place and further accommodation is found necessary, it will be a different matter. In that event the increased revenue would perhaps justify

the retention and use of the Paritutu. i It was never intended that the making! of the harbor, for which purpose the j Paritutu was purchased, should be a charge on the revenue. The cost, it was distinctly understood, was to be borne out of th" 'oan monies. The next important w k, and work that should be [carried ft simultaneously with the other is the reclamation. The eastern wall, at one time suggested, has, with the altered scheme of harbor accommodation—the shortening. of the porposed breakwater, the abandonment of wharf lengthening (except 60ft, in place of 600 ft) and the providing of berthage close inshore—become of minor importance; in fact, quite unnecessary. We notice our evening contemporary advises the Board to make a commencement with, and devote some of its loan money, to this work. We do not think the Board will be so foolish as to do anything of the kind. In the first place, the Board will require all the money it has to complete the harbor, do the reclamation necessary, and provide facilities for small vessels. In the second place, the wall, as we have shown, is, by reason of the altered conditions, now unnecessary. To some extent, we agree with the Herald when it urges greater expedition in the matter of There is nn reason why 'the smaller dredge should not be worked day and night till the channel is deepened by, say, another five feet, for then, as we have said before, the big vessels will be able to berth at the wharf at high water. But it is an entirely different matter with the Paritutu. Under the present system, the men work nine to ten hours daily. The officers are paid a fixed monthly wage, whilst the men are paid by the hour. In addition to actual dredging hours, much time is required for getting up steam, mooring, etc. The present hours cannot be extended without a complete second shift. The 15 hours of daylight, as suggested, would, at best, only permit of little over a 50 per cent, increase in time, but it would result for certain in doubling the paysheet, increasing the fuel and other charges—apart from such as repairs—by probably 60 to 70 per cent., whilst repairs and such like would probably go up 200 to 300 per cent. The latter would be the certain result, first of dual control, under which the blame for extravagance, carelessness and neglect could not be sheeted home; secondly, of the delay in carrying out repairs and the cost of same, which would mostly have to be done at night and at overtime rates. The fact that the double shift could only be worked in summer would mean only temporary employment of men * drawn away from their homes, and so result in great difficulty in getting suitable and reliable men, and then only at a considerably increased scale of wages as I compared with those now paid to permaI nent hands who have their homes close [ by. Working the Paritutu longer than i is now the case, it will thus be seen, is impracticable at present. The Board is working on sound and progressive lines, and can, we feel sure, he departed upon to do what is in the best interests of the port. AH going well, the work should be sufficiently advanced by the end of the year, at the latest, to permit of the accommodation of large boats. The fact that the vessels would be able to enter only at high tide would be no disadvantage, for half the large ports of the world are tidal. Meanwhile, we hope the Board will accelerate in every way it can the dredging of the channel and not lose sight of the reclamation work. For nothing is more certain than that sites will be wanted in the immediate future for transhipment sheds, warehouses, etc., and they can be provided by the Board without much cost or difficulty.