MATAI'S WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 264, 7 November 1931, Page 12

MATAI'S WORK.

ROUND OF THE COAST.

LIGHTS, BUOYS AND BEACONS.

EXCEPTIONALLY FINE WEATHER

Few smarter ships come into port than the Government lighthouse steamer Matai, and many a complimentary remark was passed about her appearance as she lay at the Central wharf this morning. There was a flat calm on the harbour and passengers by the ferry boats saw the glistening white hull, yellow funnel and shining brass fittings of the steamer perfectly mirrored in the water.

Four times a year the Matai graces the port with her presence, for she works to a programme. Every three months she sails out of Wellington, comes up the East Coast to Auckland, goes from here round North Cape and down the West Coast, passes through Cook Strait and down the east coast of the South Island, and works up the west coast to complete a figure-eight round trip of the Dominion. At the present time the Matai is. loading stores for Northern lighthouses, after ten days' work around the lights, buoys and beacons of the Hauraki Gulf and localities near to Auckland.

The Matai left Auckland on October 28 and spent that day attending to the automatic light on Flat Rock and the beacon at Wliangaparapara. Every three months the lens of an un watched light have to be thoroughly cleaned, the tower- painted, and the light re-charged with the gas cylinders which keep it in action as efficiently as if it were controlled by a human keeper. On the following day the ship was at Mokoliinau lighthouse, where the usual stores were landed. The lighthouse-keeper's wife, who had a baby a few weeks old in her arms, went ashore. The automatic light at the Chickens was attended to on the same day.

The Whangateau beacons and the Maori Rock buoy occupied the attentions of the lighthouse ship on Friday of last week. New paint had to be put on the beasons and the buoy ha-d to be lifted, chipped and repainted, and the moorings examined for portions that had become worn and chafed by the action of the sea. Saturday morning was spent overhauling the Matakana beacon, and the week-end was spent in Bon Accord harbour.

On Monday the Matai was busy again with the buoys at Mahurangi, and on Tuesday she attended the Brazier Rock beacon and the Shearer Rock buoy, off Tiri. The beacon off Obura and that off Maloney's Reef, Deep Creek, once famous for its snapper fishing, were overhauled on Wednesday and on Thursday the ship completed her job ibv lifting and re-mooring the d'Urville Rock buoy. Before working Auckland comes to the city on Monday, the Matai will be slipping out of the gulf bound for Northern lighthouses and the West Coast.

!*} Since leaving Wellington nearly a month ago, the Matai has experienced perfect weather. "It has been extraordinary," said Captain J. Burgess, master : of .the shin. 'We have dodged every little breeze, and the only wind we have encountered was when we were tied np at the wharf here a fortnight ago. The East Cape is one of the nastiest places around the coast, but on the morning we worked there the sea was' a flat calm. As soon as the ship had finished her job and got away the wind started to blow, and it has been blowing almost £ver since, according to the weather reports I have received."

On lier trip round the nrulf lighthouses the Matai had ae passengers Sir. and Mrs. Russell Duncan and the Rev. J. A. Asher, of Napier. Mr. Asher left for his home last evening and Mr. and Mrs. Duncan departed for Taupo and Napier this morning.