PORT FACILITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 250, 21 October 1926, Page 10

PORT FACILITIES.

KEEPING AUCKLAND UP TO

DATE.

SPEEDY HANDLING OF CARGO

PROGRAMME FOR THE FUTURE,

Under the title "Proposed Harbour Works," Mr. Drummond Holderness, A.M. Inst. C.E., engineer to the Auckland Harbour Board, at the Chamber of Commerce monthly lunch to-day, gave a most interesting account of the expansion of the port and the far-seeing policy of the board in providing adequate port facilities for handling the rapidly-growing shipping. As an indication of the tremendous development of the Auckland province, he showed diagramatically how, while the population of the Dominion as a whole had increased at a steady rate of 12.1 per cent every five-year period, the population of the province had increased 17.5 per cent; Auckland City had increased 24.2 per cent, and at the present time comprised practically one-sixth of the population of the Dominion. From 1902 to 1025 the tonnage of ships entering the port of Auckland had increased from 1,911,379 gross to 4,204,033 per year, or 120 per cent. The tonnage of goods passed over the board's wharves had grown from 633,786 tons in 1904 to 1,925,743 in 1925, or an increase of 204 per cent. Obviously no haphazard development could hope to meet the case, and as an indication of the increased efficiency of the port, due to better layout of wharves, equipment with railway sidings, electric cranes and ample shed space, it was explained that the port to-day was not nearly so congested as in 1904, although the actual linnear feet of berthage had increased only 46 per cent against the increased shipping tonnage of 120 per cent and of goods tonnage of -204 per cent. It was quite a common thing to discharge over 2000 tons a day from one ship, and in October, 1924, the Kaiwarra discharged produce at the rate of 2,844 tons a day. Speaking of the provision at the Western wharf for dealing with bulk oil, he mentioned that the revised plans of the board made adequate' provision for a considerable expansion of the industry in the future by the reclamation of a large area of land to the west of the Western breakwater, and that work had already been begun. A Real Railway Wharf. One of the most pressing needs of the port was a properly equipped railway wharf for the rapid discharge of coal, phosphate rock, and sulphur, of which by far the greatest quantity was delivered by rail, the quantity of the two last mentioned items increasing at an enormous rate. Although railway c6nnections existed to practically all the board's wharves, they were not in a true sense of the word railway wharves. The old system of discharging with baskets had. to give way to the modern method of self-dumping grabs, which took "bites" of 30cwt to 2 tons, and tremendously increased the -rate of discharge of a ship. The railway wharf it was proposed to build to the east of the present King's wharf would be designed solely as a railway wharf, with adequate track

accommodation on the wharf itself, and very liberal siding accommodation on the reclamation in the vicinity for assembling rakes of trucks. There would be no sheds on the wharf. Hoppers would be provided for the reception of bulk stuff, and specially-designed cranes operating large capacity grabs would ensure a continuous discharge at a rapid rate with a minimum employment of labour. Mr. Holderness showed by a diagram how effective this thoroughly up-to-date wharf would be.

To Handle Export Produce. Another important item would be an export wharf with cool storage accommodation on the reclamation at the foot of the wharf, this also being to tho east of King's. This wharf would provide for the accumulation of butter, frozen meat, fruit, and the other items of Auckland exports, and facilities for their rapid loading into overseas vessels, which could move over from the wharves where they had discharged and take on board a full cargo as fast as modern appliances could load it. Mr. Holderness explained fully the latest methods of handling frozen and chilled produce by means of mechanical conveyors right from the cool storage to the ship's holds—a method which not only saves time but also labour. While on this point Mr. Holderness pointed out that, by the present <iwthod of lifting cargo from a number ot small porta overseas, vessels spent anything from 30 to 60 days in New Zealand waters, which meant a good deal of, expense. There was no reason why an overseas vessel should not discharge her 8000 tons of inward cargo at the Prince's wnarf in four or five days, and then transfer to the export wharf and take in a full cargo in another four or five days. A saving of 20 to 30 days would represent from £6000 t-. £9000 in the cost of running the ship, and must ultimately lead to a considerable reduction in freight rates. Other proposed extensions were an additional general wharf of the same size and design as the Prince's wharf in the basin between the proposed Railway wharf and the King's; and another in the basin between the Prince's and Western wharves, while a third would project from the end of the Western reclamation. Railways and Ferries. A specially designed repair and lay-by wharf was contemplated in Freeman's Bay immediately east of Western wharf, and special provision would be made on the Western reclamation for such industries as timber, boatbuilding, etc. When dealing with the Western reclamation, Mr. Holderness said no one recognised better than the board that it would have been better had all railways been kept off the public streets, but that was not now possible. However, in laying out future wt>rks, he had endeavoured as far as possible to concentrate the bulk of the railway traffic to the eastern waterfront, so as to have as little railway traffic as possible crossing Queen Street, and, secondly, to carry all future railways off the streets. Passenger ferries would remain in their present location at the foot of Queen Street. Properly handled, the area now occupied could handle a very large increase in traffic. The single vehicular ferry, however, was reaching the limit of its capacity as well as blocking development to the westward, and it was proposed to remove it and substitute two ferries-'-one on the eastern waterfront to serve Devonport, and one at Freeman's Bay to serve Northcote

and Birkenhead, which would giv shorter and more direct routes, and alsi | keep the boats more out of the way 01 larger shipping. A commodious boat harbour would bt provided by enclosing an area of about 215 acres at St. Mary's Bay by a breakwater running Trom Point Erin. The breakwater would serve the double purpose of providing a boat harbour and protecting the western vehicular ferry and the allotments with water frontage on the western reclamation. A very large fleet of pleasure craft would be accommodated. Water would flow over the reef at Point Erin at high tide and ensure the area being maintained in a clean and sanitary condition. Summing up harbour works since the inception of Mr. Hamer's scheme in 1904, Mr. Holderness said there had been periodic criticims, but he could assure his hearers, as business men, that after 18 years association with the Auckland Harbour works, he was more than convinced that the right policy had been pursued and that the community nerd have no fears on that point.