HOBSON BAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 223, 20 September 1929, Page 8

HOBSON BAY.

HEIGHT OF BRIDGE. QUESTION OF BOAT HARBOUR. Mr. H. R. Jenkins, M.P., writes: "I was disappointed to read in Wednesday's "Star" a paragraph showing that the Auckland Harbour Board refused' to contribute towards the extra cost of raising the bridge about to be constructed over Hobson Bay outlet so as to enable boats to pass underneath at any tide, the board indicating that provision had already been made to supply a boat harbour and giving as a reason the shallow nature of the bay when the tide is out. By this attitude the board is determined to add to and perpetuate the folly of the past in connection with this and similar areas in the locality. The surrounding shores promise to be the most popular and most thickly populated residential area about Auckland, and the time will come when another boat harbour will be a necessity. Why should these present and the future residents owning boats be compelled to keep them at the other end of the city in St. Mary's Bay when with little expense this area could j be made available?

"The time is not far distant when that area lying between the river on the west, the railway embankment =on the north, and Orakei Road on the south, which to-day is practically a mild flat, will need to be reclaimed. This could be done by pumping out and deepening the 100 acres under question, in the one ease making a deep water launch harbour, and in the other making a park of some GO acres and more. Unless provision is made to enable dredging and other craft to pass under this projected bridge, it will be closed for all time. A yacht harbour ie not asked for, for it would make the bridge too costly to enable boats with permanent masts to pass underneath. It is estimated that it will cost £3437 to raise the bridge an extra 4ft making in all Oft Gin above high water. That is, in my opinion, a very small sum when the advantages that would eventually accrue are taken into account: This cost, I understand, would be divided between three or four different public institutions."