THE SHIFTING OF MOKOHINAU LIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 166, 15 July 1910, Page 2

THE SHIFTING OF MOKOHINAU LIGHT.

(To the Editor.) Sir,-=-I see by last evening's "Star" a reply from M*. Millar. I am gnite sure the Minister is under a wrong impression about the Mokohinau light. Mokohinau light could not be replaced' by any other light. It is the sentinel of the northern entrance to the Hau- | <raki Gulf. Vessels coming down the j coast from the North Cape, of all kinds, j from the 13,000-ton liner to the 300----j ton intercolonial, all depend on it in I making the Gulf. At present, a vessel | picking up Cape Brett light twenty miles E.NJS. distant can steer a S.S.E. course, which "will bring him right through to five mile.s eastward of Tiri Tiri. The shipmasters of Auckland are getting up a petition to the Minister of retain the light, at Mokohinau; who the guild -or authorities are that have approved of the change I cannot hud out. I am curious to know tlie name of one shipmaster, coasting or otherwise, that approves of shifting Mokohinau light. The Whangarei traders want a light on Whangarei Heads it is true, and I thipfc they should get one, but a tern-mile light would, I think, meet their wants. I , may tell you, Sir, that Mokohinau covers i the Chickens and all dangers to the | northern approaches of the Hauraki J Gulf. A light on the Hen and Chickens : would not do so. It would not, for incover any part of the Groat Barrier. All the fifty vessels trading down the coast, that the Minister speaks of, make use of the light at present on Mokohinau. Then, are the N.E. and Eastern Pacific boats (there is about one every week) not to be considered? If Mokohinau light is removed, they would have to heave to for daylight making New Zealand. Cape Brett is 110 miles north of Auckland, and a vessel from the Eastern Pacific would have to steer forty miles north «£ her course to pick it up; and: to pick up Cuvier fight a vessel would have, if from northeast, to go all round the Great Barrier. I do ijot think the Pacific tpade is going to decline, even if we have no 'Frisco mail service. There might even be something coming fco Auckland in the future via Panama. I have made use of the Mokohinau light ever since its inception, and have had to make mv wav I into the Gulf from the Pacific ten"years \ before Mokohinau was lighted- The coast at present, from twenty miles north of C'aipe Brett, is as welt lighted (with the i , exception of port lights, perhaps) as any coast known to the writer.—l am„etc. WM. BOSS. ' ' Auckland, July 13. i