H.—ls.

whole Buller district. The bunkering of vessels at Westport is encouraged by reduced port dues on vessels calling for bunkering purposes only. The following summary shows the number of vessels which called at Westport for bunkering or for coal for export since 1927-28, with the quantities of bunker coal and export cargo coal shown separately : —

It was noted in last year's report that at the end of March, 1938, following the flood in the Buller River accompanied by adverse conditions at sea, the Westport Harbour bar shoaled to the extent of 3 ft. Although showing gradual improvement, bar conditions remained bad for the first three months of the year under review and some of the larger colliers were unable to load fully, but nevertheless the coal exported for these three months was 6,000 tons more than for the corresponding months of the previous year. This indicates that if there is a demand for coal it will be shipped even when bar depths are below normal. The suction dredger " Rubi Seddon," which had been idle for many years, was recommissioned, and commenced work in June, 1938, taking up the work of the "Eileen Ward" while the latter was laid up awaiting new boilers from Great Britain. The "Eileen Ward " will be in commission again in June, 1939. Towards the end of the year under review it was deemed advisable to do maintenance dredging at the berthages and on various areas on which the suction dredgers cannot operate. For this work the bucket dredger "Maui" was recommissioned in Wellington and is now in action. The following table shows the number of days on which the respective depths of water obtained on the bar at high water, and the comparative figures for several preceding years are given : —

The rainfall for the year was 84-1 in., compared with 68-35 in. in the previous year. During the year some heavy stone has been placed at the head of the western breakwater to strengthen and consolidate the foot of the wall where work abruptly ceased in 1931. Also, considerable second-class stone has been placed at Organ's Island to repair weaknesses which floods in the river during the last five years had developed. The stone for these works has been obtained from the harbour quarry at Cape Foulwind, and particularly good work has been done by the men employed on the works mentioned. The work at Organ's Island is of a permanent nature, and maintenance for the future will be reduced to a minimum. This work is not yet complete, but will be pushed on towards completion during the present year. The reconditioning of the bridge across to the Organ's Island work was complete] during the year by the Department's own workmen and has proved adequate for the transport of heavy train loads of stone to the works. The beacons and signal-station lights which were electrified during the previous year have functioned very satisfactorily, and early in this year the equipment at the signal-station on the western breakwater was further improved by the conversion of the port flashing light from gas to electricity and the installation of a daylight electric signalling-lamp. The various harbour light boxes and houses, beacons, signalling-station, and all idle plant were maintained in good order. Opportunity was also taken to have electric light installed in the harbour offices, and portions of the building were renovated internally. Emergency life-saving rocket apparatus and equipment was closely inspected, and is maintained ready for use at urgent call.

3

| N '£i? , tiia* Tons. Tons. 1925-26 .... 20 1926-27 .... 44 1927-28 .. .. 51 54,993 1928-29 .. .. 54 54,083 1929-30 .. .. 57 61,546 1930-31 .. -• 24 25,969 1931-32 .. .. 10 7,637 1932-33 .. .. 7 6,872 1933-34 .. .. 1 14 12,703 1934-35 .. 21 16,376 1935-36 .. •. 34 20,647 1,108 1936-37 .. .. 23 22,039 1,236 1937-38 .. .. 31 24,824 1,255 1938-39 .. .. 36 22,724 11,105

Depth. 1929-30. 1930-31. 1931-32.' 1932-33. 1933-34. 1934-35. 1935-30. 1936-37. 1937-38.j 1938-39. Over 14 ft 365 365 366 365 365 365 16 ft . 365 365 .. 365 360 357 361 365 365 365 " 18 ft .. 363 340 366 350 279 353 355 356 361 363 20 ft. .. 345 208 360 287 152 263 263 328 338 275 22 ft. .'. 276 43 252 144 42 81 90 257 222 126 "24 ft .. 99 .. 53 14 .. 15 6 86 31 11 26 ft. .. 11 •• 10 7 28 ft