MODERN PORT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 3000, 19 December 1935, Page 9

MODERN PORT.

NAPIER ENTERPRISE. BIG DEVELOPMENT WORK. LIGHTERING ELIMINATED. (By Telegraph.—Special to " Star.") NAPIER, Wednesday. A modern port, sufficiently large and well equipped to meet adequately the requirements of the Hawke's Bay and East Coast districts, is the final objective in the harbour development works now being carried out at Napier. The provision of wharves offering berthage to large vessels, and of up-to-date equipment for loading and discharge, replace the obsolete and expensive methods of lightering by which trade through Napier lias been principally served for 50 years or more. The history of the port of Napier — serving a district which, for statutory purposes, extends from Waipukurau in the south nearly to Wairoa in the north —is riot one to inspire either pride or satisfaction. In 40 or 50 years some /■ hundreds of thousands of pounds were spent, mostly upon works which to-day can be written off as dead loss. For years prior to 1930, large sums raised hy loan or by rating were devoted to the development of what is known as the inner harbour, the greater part of which to-day does service as a landing ground for aeroplanes. The alternative Scheme, the development of a harbour at the breakwater, was virtually neglected. A majority of members on the papier Harbour Board being supporters ? the inner harbour project, the guidlng principle of policy was its development, though bitter opposition from wcakvater advocates never ceased. Yet - 1930, when the earthquake finally sealed the fate of the inner harbour, expenditure had failed to provide sufficient depth there for any vessel arger than a coastal trader. The bulk ? the district's exports and much of its |ttports were handled by lighterage cost■B between 10/ and 15/ a ton. Such were

the conditions at the harbour, which vies with Dunedin for the distinction of being the Dominion's fifth port, when the earthquake of 1930, together with a change in the personnel of the Napier Harbour Board, paved the way for the development of the breakwater project which is to-day being so actively undertaken. Engineer's Investigation. The new board's first step was to secure an investigation by Messrs. F. W. Furkert (then Engineer-in-Chief to the Government) and Mr. D. Holderness (engineer to the Auckland Harbour Board), who recommended the development of the breakwater. Their report was made the basis of a scheme upon which a loan poll involving a sum of £335,000 was taken, being carried in July of last year by an overwhelming majority. The sum thus authorised, together with some £71,000 of other funds, provides the £400,000 which is being spent to-day on the breakwater scheme. Two new ferro-concrete wharves, modernly equipped, railway "yards, the extension of the protecting breakwater mole and other works, such as reclamation and foreshore formation, are the most important sections of the work, while dredging, which will be necessary to provide increased depth of water, will also absorb much of the money available. The Napier Harbour Board purchased from Wellington the dredge Whakarire at a price of, roughly, £10,000, and since its arrival at Napier twenty months ago the dredge has removed just on 500,000 tons of material from the harbour bottom. Work which has been done up to the present has included principally the laying of the new railway yards, the reclamation and formation of an area of foreshore, which will be surfaced and finished as soon as it lias consolidated, the provision of abutments from which the new wharves will run, and the preparation of plant ard the making of concrete blocks for the extension of the mole. A length of 424 ft is to be added to the mole for purposes of increased protection, and the work is to be completed in about two years. £250,000 For Wharves. Of the two wharves, the smaller (which will lie between its larger companion and the existing mole) will be started within a month or two. A con-

tract for £63.000 has been let for the work, and when equipment is added the total cost of the structure will be about £70,000. The wharf will be used principally for export purposes, handling wool, meat, fruit and other produce, it will be 750 ft in length by 814 ft in width, designed for use by both rail and motor traffic. It is to be completed before the end of 1937. The larger wharf, 800 ft by 81ft, will be similarly constructed, but .will have additional equipment. The estimated cost, complete with sheds and equipment, is £179,000. It will be one of the largest and also one of the most modernly fitted wharves in the Dominion. Its actual construction will not be started for some time.

Dredging to provide berths at the sides of each wharf, and also in the fairway, involves tlijs,, removal of 1,500,000 tons, and will absorb about £110,000. A depth of 35ft' at low water is being provided, and the wharves will give accommodation, simultaneously if neccssary, to four of the largest vessels trading to New Zealand, as well as berthing coastal vessels and the local fishing fleet. The equipment on the wharves is to include modern electric cranes, similar in type to those on the wharvqs at Auckland. East Coast Railway Link. And the benefit and advantage of all this work and expenditure ?. Expressed in material terms, it can be concisely summed up. It will mean, firstly, a net saving of £50,000 a year to exporters and importers which is. to-day spent on lighterage. It will mean, further, that the 300,000 odd cases of fruit which Hawke's Bay exports every year will be shipped through Napier, instead of being railed, as at present, to Wellington because it must be wharf-loaded. And it will mean, finally, the substitution of port facilities'- commensurate with Hawke's Bay's importance as an exporting district, for methods of handling cargo and produce that have long outlived their time and their efficiency. It will take another three years or more to complete the scheme—in that time, too, the East Coast railway from Napier to Oisborne will also be completed and the usefulness of the two will be linked. When the big -undertaking is finished, the cast coast of the North Island will have at least one port between Auckland and Wellington capable of serving fully the district for which it will be the outlet.