MATAI IN PORT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 143, 19 June 1931, Page 5

MATAI IN PORT.

LIGHTHOUSE INSPECTION. WORK IN GULF NEXT WEEK. Favourable weather -was experienced by the Government lighthouse ship Matai during her recent inspection of the East Coa6t lights. The steamer arrived at Auckland last evening and will remain in port over the week-end. Throe times a year the Matai noses her way round the New Zealand coast, and her officers inspect all lights, buoys and beacons. Sometimes stormy weather means long delays, but so far this trip everything has gone smoothly. On Monday morning the ship will leave for the Hauraki Gulf. Her work there will occupy four days and on Friday she will return to port to load stores for northern lights. The vessel is expected to sail for the North about June 30. Later she will work down the West Coast, pass through Cook Straits, and go down the ea6t coast of the South Island, returning to Wellington up the West Coast. The vessel thus makes her periodical inspection in the shape of a figure eight. On her trip North the Matai will attend to the light at North Cape, which was reported by the Secretary of Marine this week to be out of order. This particular light is an unwatched one on the eastern side of the cape and is the usual turning point for vessels bound to Auckland from Australia. It was inetalled only three years ago. It ie not unusual for lights of this description to go out of order when they are new, as packing from the gas cylinders frequently blocks the jet, which is a,bout the same thickness as the lead in a pencil. At other times the jet becomes choked with carbon.