THE HARBOR.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 October 1919, Page 3

THE HARBOR.

bright future for the port. CALL FOR SYDNEY STEAMERS. This idea of a practical port at New Plymouth is no wild dream (writes Will Law sou in the Dominion). Already, without any difficulty at all, the Sydney liners could berth at the wharf at any tide, and save from eight to twelve hours on tlie run from Sydney to Wellington or Auckland. This is a substantial basic of fact to build on, and the scheme of harbor deevlopment, recommenced by Mr J. Blair Mason, M.1.C.E., which has been adopted by the New Plymouth 'Harbor Board, has all the elements of success in its composition. Hitherto all plans for a port at Moturoa have aimed chiefly at providing shelter from the westerly winds and leas. A very early plan also provided shelter from the northerly weather. But none of them took into account th£ northerly drift of the sand along the coast round Cape Egmont and into the North Taranaki Bight. The action of the sand in accumulating at the shore end of the present breakwater and linking little Mikotahi, the least of the sugarloaves. with the shore, seems to furnish sufficient proof of the wisdom behind the greater scheme now being put into operation. And when the first phase of it is completed, at an estimated coat of £300,000, vessels drawing up to forty feet of water will be able to lie in' safety at New Plymouth wharf, and to make easy ingress and egress to the port. That is a fact; the wildest seas imaginable would lose their violence on the long rubble wall, or on Moturoa and Whareumu, half a mile away across accumulated sand. While the extension of the existing breakwater for another 800 ft. will check the surge and roll which would come from suoh seas. The new wall and the extended breakwater will prevent the silting up of the harbor bottom, which is of rock; and when the sand which gathers there has been dredged nut, and ,some blasting done, here and there, a deep harbor of 300 acres will be provided. WHAT SEAMEN SAY.

"Open to the west! Oh! my liat! was the comment of one ocean skipper when his ship was ordered to New Plymouth to load. But when ne was leaving he said he would like to return many times. His ship lay so snug at the sheltered wharf, while the loading was expeditious, and there was no current or tide to worry him. Tn another instance, the captain of a 1280-ton coaster preferred entering New Plymeuth port in a howling westerly gale, to riding it out in the open sea. So "open to the west" does not apply, to New Plymouth. The importance of this scheme to Taranaki. and even to country further afield, cannot be over-esti/natedr Between Cape Maria van Diemen and Wellington there is no uort 011 the west able to take ocean ships, except New Plymouth; and when it is enlarged, and linked, bv means of the Stratfordpngarue railway, with the Main Trunk line, its utility to a lartje area of the western portion of the North Island will be evident. If will not clash with Wanganui, when that becomes a !>i« port. Wanganui's territory lies more to the south of the heavy grades of Waimarino Plains and across to TTavke's Bay. The leaser ports of Taranaki, Patea—a busy port, indeed Opunake. which is preparing to spend £HO.OW, and Waitara, will be feeders of this larcer port of the west. .And \Vnnganni will be a sister. As long as the grades on the Waimarino section of the Main Trunk line rise to "000 feet, the two ports will never be hitter rivals, for the freight will take the downhill road to the sea coast always.

INTO-THE FUTURE, A few weeks ago the member for New Plymouth asked a question in Parliament which made the thoughtless pmiie and the thoughtful think. It was that provision should be made for the Sydney mail steamers to make New Plymouth (heir first and last port of oall. The fact is that if the Government, or a shipping company chose to do so, liny 'onld send the Sydney steamers to New Plymouth to-morrow, and land Ihe passengers in a veritable tourists' paradise. eisht hours earlier limit they could be landed on Wellington wharf. That fact, alone is one to make- people in the cities think. "ft made more than one strartwr in New .Pl.vrentjtli think to see the Itifj steamer Karmnea steam up io the New Plymouth wharf. Tl\e openinp of the Panama Canal has almost cut. out New Zealand sailings via South America. Porta or: the West Coast are nearer, or at least as near, to the world ports as those on the east or in Cook Strait. A member of Parliament or a poet needs little imagination to see in the future fast inter-State liners bringing tourists direct from sweltering Sydney to New Plymouth, the port of Mount Eemont and' the eool green lands of Taranaki.