HARBOR LOAN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XL, Issue 13251, 9 December 1913, Page 4

HARBOR LOAN.

— — *». MEETING- AT MANGAPAPA. There was only a small audience at AJangapapa HaJl- last evening, when Mr J. Townley, Chairman of the Harbor Board, addressed the ratepayers upon the Board's proposals and the expenditure of the proposed loan. Mr A. Forde Matthews, who was voted to the chair, expressed regret at the small attendance m view of the subject of such great importance. Before calling on' Mv Townley, the Chairman said he would like to add that he was m favor of the proposals. He felt sure, that whatever work was undertaken by the present Harbor Engineer would be of great benefit to the district, and would never be regretted. Furthermore, the Engineer had told them it, could all form part of another harbor. A great improvement had been affected m the river by the Maui, of which they had ocular demonstration m the larger boats now coming to the wharf. . Mr Townley, m opening, said the matter, as the Chairman had stated, was of rery great importance. As the ratepayers knew the original loan Was falling due, and the- Board required the money for the redemption of the old loan md the completion of the present urgent works. The question of outer harbor jid not come into the matter at present, and Mo* Lysriar could riot bring tiis outer harbor scheme forward to the poll until he had obtained the sanction >f the Harbor Board. In emphasising the importance of /voting for the loan rie remarked that it was 28 years ago when they took_ the last poll for a loan, so the Board had not bothered the ratepayers very much. He pointed out the necessity for voting, and the fallacy of leaving. the matter and thinking that the poll would be carried. It was their duty to record their votes. If the poll was lost they wpuld.npt.be able to take mother poll for 12 months. The great point was that* everyone should come out s*nd' Vote. Turning to the Harbor Bill >f 1907, authorising t/ne taking of a poll on the outer- harbor ' question, he said that- when 'Mr ' Lysnar returned from Wellington after getting ; the Bill through j he gave notice at the 5 Board that they should take a poll. He (Mr rownley) had ; asked him oil which scheme,, Reynolds', Marchant's, or Coode'sj they should take the poll, and Mr Lysnar had replied 'that it did not. matter. He (the speaker) had moved^ that until a plan' was decided upon no* such; resolution should be carried by: the Board. Tlie amendment was carried, md the motion was lost, ancl.it had reinained adead letter ever since. Continuing, Mr Townley said he v had been asked to explain the position m regard to the rating clause. The 6200,000 loan Bill just passed provided for a rate if necessary, but they did not. think an v rate would be necessary. It would require m the £1 to meet interest? ih the ©vent pf the revenue falling short. But as long as they had sufficient money to pay'ordinary working expenses and interest there would be no rate' "at all. This Bill provided ( for an equalrate over the whole district, but the "1907 Bill provi3ed 'for a. double rate on the borough. The rate m the new Bill would |d over both borough and counties; but the 1907 fiill provided for a rate of Id m. the borough and W in. the county. They were constantly' having the reports of . past engineers brought up, but was ihere nothing new m the last 20 ' years? The speaker went on to recall the fact that at Liverpool many yearsj ago they had only 15ft of \vater on the^ bar, but they had made great 'changes by dredging! Mr Napier Bell had said the. same to the Board-Mjiat the river should be dredged. He had' advised the Board to; first get a; "Priestman dredge and afterwards to get a bucket dredger to deepen the river. Yet they were told the ' Board had 'not acted r on engineering, advice. Every step taken had been on engineering advice. Mr C. Y. O'Connor, he went on to say, had said that the .scour ; would keep 13ft or 14ft; and if they wanted more they should dredge. That was just what they had done, and they would all agi'ee , the Maui had done a great deal of good. She had never, on a. single, day that, was suitable, been unable to dredge/ Turning to Mr Lysnar ogam, he said that gentleman had written a letter to the m-ess, charging him with losing £61,333 m the accounts. In reply to this Mr Townley quoted a statement frnm. tJip,,,.. Board's . auditor, which he said "fully answered the point, and showed that c nothing had been. lost. One of the' main reasons for which they were anxious to get this loan, he proceeded 'm explain, was On account of the dangerous sjiaite taf the -entrance. In detailing past history Mr Ttiwnley referred to Mr Marehanlt's proposal to construct an extension . if t papa, rock, which was subsequently condemned by Mr Holmes, the ■■Government Engineer. The latter 1 had been invited to give his advice, #nd the- -Board' had, upon Mr Holmes' recommendation, let a contract for an extension of 200 ft. Mr McDonald, the present Harbor KngJneer, when he came, pointed out that the extension m progress was insufficient to. protect the entrance, and the Board had subseojenf.ly extended the contract to the second sepjiion. (After M&mng the proposed allocation of the W, Mr Townley said the Board was looking ' ftlfow?, an<l was anxious to make more berthage accommodation. They had larger boats coming m_^there. was the. Petone drawing 14ft 6ift m Sunday morning, coming -m about an iiour fce^ore low water It was only a few yea*» ago when the bquai ufeed to come herep drawing JX)ft, .and it had been necessary, even af b'gh water, -to -take soundings to see H there was enough water. It was now very much better at low water than it was origiiiglly at high water. Referring to the adWcs- of the outer harbor scheme, he "said it was only recently they had pinned .them^ves down to any particular scheme— Marphajni s. 1 OUTER HARBOR. Isolated M»W>ts, continued Mr TownleV, have feeen'.pujt,. forward from the report* ofthe'W^ A?nsulting engineers with view of l.^uencing public opinion i» of an,. ,<?uter harbor on j the KtAti feew*> generally known as Mr Marchant'g' scheme. It therefore becomes necessary to pu|< the correct facts before the ratepayers. M? Thompson's original scheme, a portion

ol' which only was carried out., was Un a combined river and outer harbor on the Waikanae beach. -\Lr Leslie Rev nolds states the best outer harbor site is on the Waikanae beach. Mr Holmes' scheme was for . a combined river and outer harbor on the Waikanae beach. Mr McDonald's proposal is for a. combined, river and outer harbor pn the Wailkanae beach. This made a total ot four engineers, adopting the Waikanae beach as the best site. Mr Marchant recommended a site for an outer harbor on the Kaiti beach, and, in this recommendation he, stands alone, as- • Messrs Cootie, Son, and Matthews were limited m making their repoi-t, to advising the Board on Mr Marchant's scheme. The concensus of opinion was therefore four {o one m favor of an outer harbor, when required, being constructed on the Waikanae beach. In reference to his own design for an outer haTbor on the Kaiti beach, Mr Marchant states that he "cannot conceive a much more dangerous place for a vessel to seek shelter than m a harbor situated m the north-eastern side of Poverty Bay," that is at the Kaiti beach. A more complete condemnation of his own' scheme could not be imagined.. INKER HARBOR. The question oi what the various consulting engineers considered possible to maintain in' depth m the entrance channel, at the time they reported, was beside the present question, as conditions had materially altered. The Board had now a powerful dredge, which was , not anticipated by them, and the breakMater had 1 been extended a further 450 feet, giving effective protection to the entrance. It could not be^denied that whatever opinions were given m the past, the fact now stood out that /they had over 15 feet of water at low tide", m the entrance channel, and right up to the wharves, and this was being maintained. The Board had now before them a complete scheme for further development, and the work Avas being earned out on economical and business lines. There was nothing of an experimental nature m the Board's present proposals, as they were acting under the advice of a well known and experienced harbor Engineer, who enjoyed the full confidence of the Board. The present financial position was that the dredge Maui was purchased and paid for by the Board -without striking a rate, but the outcome of this expenditure was the' raising of the overdraft to £18,000 at the time the loan bill was drafted. The first section of the breakwater extension was let without having sufficient funds -in. hand to meet the liability, but the work v.as so urgent that the work as recommended by Mr Holmes had to be proceeded with. In January last the Board decided to take the initial steps for raising a loan to carry out urgent harbor improvements, and it was then decided to anticipate this loan by authorising a further extension of the breakwater so as to give complete protection to the entrance. The expenditure to which the Board was actually committed at the present time was £57,00 (bank overdraft £18.000, breakwater ' first section £17,000, " arid second section £22,000): At the time the loan bill was prepared the bank overdraft was £18,000, but this had now increased to £43,000, owing to heavy progress payments that had to be made to the breakwater contractors is the work proceeded. These contractors have been paid to date £25,548 For work done. It was expected that this contract would be completed m April, when the balance of the contract imount would have tn be found. The :>ther items m the loan proposals were, redemption of 1885 loan amounting to £75,000, a*d £68,000 for new works that have not, yet been . started. These later works were widening and deepen\x\fr the entrance channel and construction of additional wharf and ; sheds, which iforere urgently required to keep pace with the growing traffic of the. port. He might say they had very good arrangements with the bank, " and they were to float' the loan on a favorable opportunity. He was isure the expenditure would materially improve the port, which was already greatly improved. After referring to "other, aspects of the question Mr Townley appealed to those present to support the loan* pointing out the Board required to get the money by some means to reduce the expiring loan and carry oh the present improve ments. He felt sure' there would be no rate struck. If they voted against the loan they would be recording their vote m favor of an outer harbor, and if they went m for that he unhesitatingly said they would have very heavy rates. Mr Wilson, of Coode. Son and Matthews, had stated it would take 700 tons every day for seven years to build the breakwater, and discussing this with a local shgineer of standing ..and .. long experience, he said they would do well if they could get half the quantity. He would take that engineer's opinion before that : of Mr Marchant. Mr J. W. J, Preston said he had come to the meeting because he felt there had been *n 'erroneous idea circulated respectino- the .proposals, and he ' much regretted the attitude Mr Lysnar had taken up. Referring to the improvement effected ,m the river, he pointed out that it was only three years. ago when the Tuatea was unable to float' at low water, and the Squall could only come m the river at the top of high water. In fact it was not so" long ago when the Squall had to remain two days m the bay before she could get m, and four days m the river before she could get out. It had been asserted that the first flood wwuld silt the river up, but there had been various floods ..arid so far it had not silted np m the manner suggested by t Mr Lysnar and his friends. FJe emphasised the necessity for having the harbor, works close up to the town, and went on to say Mr Townley had shown the financial impossibility of keeping the river open and at the" same time building an outer harbor. The district could not afford it; Speaking of the improvement effected he referred to the fact that when he first came here there was a bank of silt close up to the Kaiti bridge where now they could bring m vessels drawing 16ft, and if the. fact that the Petone had been .able to come m drawing l4ft 6in within about an hour of low water was not sufficient evidence then he did not know what He was solidly behind the Board m this matter- He r had thumped m and out of the river m the. Tuatea until he had been absolutely frightened, and the question of effecting immediate improvements had been taken tip by the ship masters and others as the existing conditions were then a positive danger to Jiuman ; life.- The speaker went on to detail how the matter had been pressed upon the Board, and pointed out that the result now was they had a safe entrance.,, . .H^ /was glad they had a qualified engineer, and he was surprised , at the assertion M>ti Lysnar had made m respect to' the increase iii £he engineer's salary. Mr McDonalds had -been," here two years, and the work' ho had done spoke for itself, and if that was not *»- sufficient vindication for the Board's action then hq did not know what. was. ' His strong point, he said, was that they had a competent and fully qualified' engineer wno was well able to oarry' out the • work, and the work so far justified the future. A few years ago, as he had said, they could hardly get the Squall m, and now they were able to .berth vessels up to 2000 tons. The speaker went on to refer to the saving m the lighterage already effected, pointing out that there was a reduction of 2s on the freight on coal that, now came, up to the. wharf, whilst the whole of, the lighterage , was saved on the' hundreds of tons, of;-mer-chandise that came from Auckland by the weekly boat. The proposed, increase m the engineer's salary was well justified, and m this connection he declared that with' the money, that had. 1 been wasted m consulting engineers it would have paid long ago, to 1 have had a qualified resident engineer to have carried out the work and administrative duties,. The deepening of thS river was necessary with the : larger- class of vessels coming ' hero, whilst the wharf age was also irinufficientV and it was imperative that the Board should get to work And increase the 'wharf age accommodation.' Tf this was not done there would be chaos and confusion worse confounded. It was absolutely necessary the loan should be carried, and he took the responsibility as a ratepayer 3 and a citizen of, urging the ratena-yers to -vote for the loan. I MV Francis Stafford said that when he Baffle V 6 R'sbo*rK, over ; 29 yenrsagp;

he had landed at the end of the breal water m the Snark, where the tendc had to remain for weeks and month unable to come into the river. Instea of £370,000 he considered it would cos over a million to build the outer hai bor, and he hoped all who had the ir terests of the district at heart woul support the Joan. They had had a goo many schemes of Mr L-yshar's, but the had not seen much success, and th Borough had been left m a deep hoi* The Harbor Board had managed its ai fairs very well, and he had come to th meeting to express his sympathy wit Mr Townley and his work. Mr Townley, m the course of a ie\ additional remarks, said that Mr Lys nar had stated the quantity of good that would come direct to Gisborne (m stead of being transhipped) would b 25,000 tons. He had a return compilei from official data showing that the ship ments from Britain m 18 months wer 7571 tons, brought out m a large mini ber of vessels, to the main ports, vary ing m shipments of from 20 to 30 tons He quoted figures to show the~local por charges on the Home steamers, thi Corinthic, for instance, paying £97 everi time she visited the port. There vva not one vessel, he declared, that wai not coming to Gisborne now that wouk come if tney had an outer harbor to day. He Avent on to show that the of forts to secure direct shipments to Gis borne had been "unsuccessful owing t< the insufficient cargo offering. Mr Lys nar, he contended, had included th( Australian and Island fruit boats, whicl would not come here to discharge theii local cargo even with an outer harbor, It surprised him the fallacies that \ver< talked, and which the people accepted, It was a dream and nothing more, this enormous saving they were supposed tc make with an outer harbor. At the instance of the Chairman, «i vote of thanks was accorded to Mi Townley for his instructive address.