9

H.—lsc

28. The following statement shows the Board's expenditure under various main headings generally descriptive of the Board's operations. It has been summarized from the statement prepared for us by the Audit Department, with the addition of three months' expenditure supplied by the Secretary of the Board, and bringing the statement down to the 31st March, 1913 : — Westport Harbour Board : Statement op Expenditure. £ s. d. Eastern breakwater . . .. .. 170,863 4 8 Western breakwater .. .. .. 91,222 3 5 Training-walls .. . . .. ... 112,529 4 2 Quarries, permanent-way, cranes, &c. .. 108,731 10 2 Buller Bridge .. .. .. .. 18,01115 1 Orowaiti protection works . . .. .. 7,356 18 2 Buller relief channel . . . . . . 2,395 1 6 Cape Foulwind Railway : Construction .. 51,072 0 9 Cape Foulwind Railway : Working and maintenance .. .. . . . . 20,538 14 3 Westport-Ngakawau-Mokihinui Railway .. 200,705 2 6 Floating basin .. .. .. .. 57,939 16 9 Gridiron and repairs . . .. .. 2,874 8 10 Staiths and repairs .. . . .. 27,484 13 5 Harbour buildings and repairs .. . . 3,606 710 Wharves and bins .. .. . . 84,029 19 6 Plant and repairs . . . . .. 63,176 18 7 Dredges and dredging .. . . .. 217,183 13 0 Repairs (not specified) . . .. .. 9,364 6 1 Cape Foulwind Railway Reserve .. . . 3,027 13 7 Coal-boring .. .. .. . . 1,435 1 1 Harbour expenses and salaries (including Esplanade) .. .. .. .. 82,397 11 11 Salaries and engineering, and working-expenses tug "Mana" .. .. .. 31,367 12 9 Accident insurance .. .. . . 9,548 4 7 Special rate paid to Government . . . . 19,133 18 8 Interest on loans, &c. .. .. .. 614,023 12 3 Sinking fund .. .. .. .. 77,531 13 10 Miscellaneous (including rates, law charges, endowment management expenses, travel-ling-expenses, Public Revenues Act, Exhibition Empowering Act, 1905, Appropriation Act, 1910, Westland arid Nelson Coalfields Act, 1901, office expenses, loanflotation expenses, 1885, £200,000, loanflotation expenses, 1909, Martin's Island, Chairman's annual allowance) .. . . 30,758 13 3 Total .. .. .. £2,118,310 0 7 29. Mr. Napier Bell, although he had ceased in 1887 to be Resident Engineer, kept in close touch with the works and reported thereon from time to time. The Board also received at various times engineering reports from Mr. Leslie Reynolds, Mr. R. W. Holmes as Marine Engineer of the Dominion, and Mr. C. W. Darley. 30. Owing to the dredging as recommended by Sir John Coode not having been carried out, a large shingle-spit had encroached upon the deep-water channel of the river-bed opposite the town, and to avoid the necessity for the removal of this obstruction by dredging, Mr. Napier Bell, in 1891, whilst reporting generally on the position of the works, recommended that the internal training-wall on the western side of the river should be constructed upon a different alignment from that recommended by Sir John Coode, and that it should be shortened up-stream, terminating at the Buller Bridge. The effect of this alteration was to remove

2—H. 15c.