TIMARU HARBOR BOARD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2013, 27 February 1890, Page 4

TIMARU HARBOR BOARD.

The annual meeting and the ordinary monthly meeting of the board were held on Tuesday. Present—Messrs E. Aden (chairman), Ross, Morris, Wilson, Talbot, Flatman, and Captains Vyoollcombe and 'Sutter. ANNUAL MEETING. In the annual report; it was stated that the horth mole would be completed within a few week?, well within contract Idatd.; ■ The water area enclosed was 56 acres. The entrance to the harbor had been left 350 feet, and the effect of the mole in calming the water was all that bad been expected. Its effect in shutting out the sand'drift which at times swept round the end of the breakwater was very marked. year the engineer had drawn up a leport on the shingle accumulated, • an'd 1 he estimated that should the shingle eventually have to be i bodily; removed the cost would not exceed £IOOO per annum. During the year Ihe Taniwhhi’; had ■ dredged and discharged 21,440 tons of spoil and 823 tons of rocks. Thei deep waiter berth at the main wharf had been extended about 300 feet shoreward, During last session of Pnr iament an Act had been passed vesting 275 'icrt-a i ; Carol;u- Bay i,i the board. On ihe 27th E broary the Governor proclaimed a pihi' ;v-' di-tret for the port. A powerful

r>fw [n;. j r»«sn ordered at a cost of £1 o; 950, Vci al iv a red in Ti mar u, and she wa.- -ixpucu-d about, the m; cl ole of Aug ;at. The surfboats had not been used iu lightering vessels for 18 months. The continued increased in the tonnage' of imports and exports W;-s noted, the totals for the past three years having been—

Nor 1887 ... ... 68,842 tons cargo » 1888 74,517 „ ’IBB9 79.019 ~ There had been a corresponding increase in the revenue of the board from dues, the figures being ; For 1888, £9447 13s 6d ; for expenses of the port for 1889 wete £5003 0s 9d. This amount included the

item £1437 145,1 d on account of dredging, 1889 being the ‘first year in which the b..ard hud decided to meet the coat of dredging from general account instead of from loan account. The working of txpenses the harbor, exclusive of dredging viz. £3566 6i Bd, \tere less than for any previous year, since 1882. The for interest bn fixed deposits' were £2OOO Is lid for 1889, as against £2846 3 1 31 ior 1888, and £4051 4s 9d for 1887. The revenue from this source during the current year will probably not exceed £450. To provide for the deficiency, the board had decided to strike an annu-l rate

of £d in the £, yielding about £3OOO The sum of £3579 12s Id, the Board’s costs in the action with Sluw Savill and Albion Co., was held in suspense, pending the decision of the Privy Council. The 'available balance of the loan, after pro-

viding for the completion of the north mole, for the new tug, for extending the slipway, and for contingencies, is £12,312 9i. The expenditure on works during

the year was £22,468 Us 2d, the principal items being for north mole, £13,619 5s Id, and on account of the new ttig,-£7592 10/. The report and balance-sheet were then adopted, and MrE. Acton was unanimously re-elected chairman. :

ORDINARY MEETING. The ordinary meeting then took place. After reading correspondence on the subject, a payment of £250, on account of costs on the ship Lyttelton, was passed. The harbor master was granted a short leave of absence.

The standing committee made the following recommendations : That the board introduce a Bill into Parliament to amend the 1880 and 1885 Loan Acts in the direction ot empowering the board to

levy upon the local bodies within the harbor district for future deficiencies in the revenue to meet payment of interest on loans already borrowed, in place of the presenlexpeusive md troublesome method of striking a Bipartite rate ; that it be notified that all rates '••■maining unpaid on the 15 h March next be sued .for .without further notice; uiat a su-.vey be mart- of the wra ck of the “ Duka of Sutherland,” and that ini' obstructions remaining be removed by blasting ; that tha sum of £4OO oe set aside annually to a fund to be called ‘‘Wharves renewal fund’’ the coat of repairs to the wharves each year to be paid out of this fund, the bal./noa to the credit of the fund from time io time to be placed on fixed deposit to accumulate

with interest; that the renewal fund now standing to the credit of the Titan be transferred to the credit of p.s, Mana on the arrival of the new tug.

The report as a whole was adopted. In bis report the engineer stated that the annual suryey of the beach had been made, and placed on the record plan. The north mole contract should be finished in a fortnight. Since last meeting the Taniwha had dredged and discharged: 5995 tons.of spoil. Authority was asked! for the purchase of diver’s dress and certain other requisites. A plan annexed' B i?Y w ’ e( I the advanee of shingle in 1889 to have been 48 feet.

Ihe chairman reported that arrange, meats had been, made to lift the tsmainde f of the random blocks, and that the tu? Titan had been slipped and'cleaned at v cost of £12103. V .1 The harbor master reported the arriva of 24 steamers' and 10 sailing vessels during January. Increased wharfage accommodation was urgently required, and he suggested that it be provided along the north waT. If a survey of the remains of the- Duke of Sutherland were decided upon it would be well to survey also the wreckage of the' Lyttdtoh, and if •feasible to destroy it by dynamite.

It was agreed that more , wharfage accommodation was very desirable, but the means were wanting. . f. ? , -

Mr Merchant suggested removing the Moody wharf to the mole, and. thought it could be done for‘£4ooo, • '

After some discussion, the meeting terminated. ”