THE PORT.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 July 1920, Page 7

THE PORT.

PROGRESS OF NEW WORK! PREPARING FOR BIGGER SHIPS. YEARS OP TOIL AHEAD. 'A striking example of the developmei of the port of New Plymouth will t provided this month, when, within period of about a couple of weeks, thr< overseas ships will berth at the wharf One of these vessels will come in tl course of its customary tour of Ne Zealand ports to load meat, cheese, an other produce for the English market and it will come and go almost ur noticed, for a growing dairying distrk and an expanding port have long ago dt manded frequent visits from large Horn liners. The second vessel is now i .port and it represents direct connectio 'between New Plymouth and San Fran eisco. The arrival of the third overseas ves sel is more significant, for she is comin; with direct imports from New York, an; her arrival will mark the definite incep tion of a regular direct service betweei the United States and Taranaki. Sonn months ago a trial trip was made i: tMs run by the Lorain, and the company then said, in effect: "If your port h suitable we will send the Donald McKaj here, and then regular steamers." T'li Donald McKay is arriving next week. Visualising the crude shipping facili ties which existed at New Plymouth £ few years ago and comparing them wit! the picture of activity which the harbu will present this month, one needs little imagination to appreciate the vast im portance which an up-to-date port can confer on Taranaki, and as New Plymouth residents watch the development of their harbor, they become more strongly impressed with the vital necessity of completing the new scheme oi improvements with the least possible delay. In the port of Moturoa lies the key which will open the way to the full development of the riches of Taranaki. THE PESSIMISTIC CRITIC. "The first part of the harbor scheme may be completed in ten or fifteen years instead of five years, judging by the progress made since the work was put in hand. The methods are crude, painfully slow and ineffective, and the men behind the gun are too fossilised to evince the necessary energy and enterprise to speed up the work and get it done in the lifetime of the present generation." This is what the man in the street is saying, not loudly, but quite emphatically. So a Daily News reporter set out to make enquiries and tell the public of the actual position of things. And it provided the reason why the man in tho street is wondering what is being done It is really a story of hidden progress —the steady daily toil of 90 to 100 men is not strikingly evident, because it » not on the surface to be seen by tin casual observer. The twelve months' labor is under water, but some morning—and that morning is not very far away—it will come out of the water for all the world to see, and the transformation will be remarkable. The first impression that one receives on visiting the port and casually surveying the harbor is that everything is much as it was some years ago. Thit sturdy little' toiler, the "Tommy King," seems to be still piling stone on the breakwater, and the dredge Paritutu is ceaselessly tearing up the floor of the h'arbor, and everything seems unaltered by the years. But as one goes a little further the strange shape of the island of Moturoa arrests the attention. Its form has perceptibly altered and huge masses of rock have fallen from its side-'.. And on the mainland, over at the old quarry site, it is all different. Huge masses of rock have been blasted away, new buildings have appeared, the mass of broken iron—the remnants of paat endeavors —has given place to new machinery, and a large number of busy men give an air of activity to the plac.i. The visitor has come on the scene of industry which is building up the first phase of the, harbor improvements. PROVIDING MORE SHELTER. But the real work still remains hidden. Wliat has happened to all this rock from Moturoa and the mainland? It is building up the foundations for the extension of the breakwater. It is proposed eventually to extend the existing breakwater some 1800 feet out to sea. but;' for the present, an extension of COO feet only is being concentrated upon, and when this is completed it will provide increased shelter which will be of material value to the shipping facilities. From the fishing rock quarry rock averaging in quantity about 200 tons a day has been steadily tipped on the line of extension, with the result that though mothing can be seen on the surface, the ;' foundation lias been built up for a distance of about 300 feet to the low level iinark. The foundation for the whole ■6OO feet is taking more definite shape every day, and each succeeding soundings reveal a decrease in the depth of water. When this foundation is completed the work of placing in position a covering of concrete blocks, or 'the breakwater proper, can be undertaken, and then, in a very short time, the labor of many months, will be seen. It is another part of the scheme that 'Moturoa should be joined to the existing end of the breakwater, and it is this work which explains where the stone from Moturoa has gone. When this connection is made it will trap the drifting sand which has always been n source of great trouble, continually sweeping round the end of the breakwater and Ailing the harbor. Some idea of the nature of this task may be gained from the statement that a million tons of rock will hi required to construct this wall, and then when it fills up with the drifting sand, it will reclaim an area of about 68 acres. Before this principal task could be undertaken it was found necessary to block a channel forty feet deep which runs between Moturoa and the Lion Rock, and this is where stone from Moturoa has been directed. It takes a lot of stone to fill up a channel forty feet deep, and it has been a long labor. But the en'i is in sight. BIG EXPLOSION SOON. Tunnels are now being driven to enable a huge mass of stone comprising th> conical shaped top of Moturoa to b? blown off at the same time, and it is expected to carry out this operation in about six weeks' time. "It will be the biggest shock of them all," as one of the foremen described it, and it is' hopcJ that the large fall of rock will block this ahannel. This piece of Ailing will not

be a very striking piece of work, to the casual observer it might not appear much in the big scheme of things, but it will represent a very important step forward, and the way will then be clear to proceed with the construction of the connecting wall. To enable this to be commenced a quarry floor large enough to accommodate a crane has to be' blasted on Moturoa, and then a landing stage for barges will have to be provided. This wall cannot be carried out with a moving nail-head, because of the current drifting in from the south scouring away tha wall at the head, but it will be built up evenly throughout tys whole length, thus forming the desired trap for the sand. When the basin formed by the wall extending from the breakwater to Moturoa, and thence to Lion Rock, is reclaimed by the drift, the existing breakwater will incidentally be robbed of its purpose, and much of the material used in its construction could be used elsewhere to greater advantage. But the day of a shortage of rock is very far away, because it is estimated that Moturoa will provide three million tons of rock before it is blasted down to a level with the breakwater. FURTHER WORK AHEAD. This, then, is the task of to-day—the extension of the breakwater and the connection with Moturoa—and it is expected that six years- will be required to carry out this part of the scheme. The completion of this work will provide two of the most essential improvements which the shipping companies are asking for—increased shelter and considerably greater depth of water. The scheme does not end here—proposals for a new breakwater jutting out from Kawaroa to provide a basin, a seawall to provide berths where the foreshore now is, and other improvements with which the public are familiar, are contemplated, but many years will be required to do this, and for the present we must look to the next five years for the changes which will most rapidly make New Plymouth one of the leading ports of the Dominion.