HARBOR IMPROVEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 December 1921, Page 4

HARBOR IMPROVEMENT.

The announcement made by the chairman of the Harbor Board on Thursday is as encouraging as it is important. He said that the board had every reason to

expect to be able to raise a loan in London shortly for carrying out the harbor improvements, and that an agreement had been reached with the Railway Department regarding the vexed question of access. This means that the difficulties which have been retarding the work «ir some time past have been, or are about to be. overcome, and that the

board will oe able to push, on energetically with the construction of the new wharf, which, with the expansion of the trade of the port, iias become a pressing necessity A good deal of dredging for the new oerth vill. have to be done. Some of the members appear to think that the present dredge is unequal to doing the ,/ork oy itself expeditiously, and motion ./as carried authorising the engineer to make enquiries respecting the possibility of hiring a suitable dredge or any other feasible method of expediting dredging operations. Too much expedition cannot be shown, for the iact is apparent that already the berthage is altogether inadequate, whilst the present wharf has seen its best service. Much voidable tifne has been lost for reasons that it must be acknowledged, were largely beyond the control, of the board. At the same time we see no reason why the work of dredging and building the wharf should not proceed -simttltftn-eoHsly. There will be a good deal of reclamation to be done to the approaches and foot of the new wharf, the eastern side of which will be' of rubble. The board has agreed to the suggestibn of the Railway' Department to construct an overhead bridge. It entails further expense, but from an engineering, as well as from a railway, point of view an overhead bridge has the considerable advantage of allowing work to go on uninterruptedly. And that is what is required. The boardwill still proceed with lengthpning the breakwater though we are inclined to think that, the provision of another berth is efen more important to-day than the other, urgent as that may be. W6 irte practically two years behind the requirements of the trade of the port, and Until the -new wharf is built the difficulties will increase and not diminish. y (7