WELLINGTON HARBOUR BOARD.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10062, 14 June 1898, Page 5

WELLINGTON HARBOUR BOARD.

EXTENSIVE WORKS PROPOSED.

[By Tklkgram.]

[FKOM OVH SPECIAL CORKESPONDKNT.J

WELLINGTON, June 13.

There are probably few local bodies in the colony administered with the ability and the enterprise that characterises the work of the Wellington Harbour Board. In Mr Fergusson, their engineer, they have secured a professional man of conspicuous ability, while on the Board itself the members as a whole are noted for their zeal and business capacity. It is net surprising therefore that the management of the Board's affairs has been crowned with success in the past. It is true Wellington has enjoyed advantages that were not to be found at the doors of some other cities, but on the other hand there has been an entire absence of bungling and mismanagement. The Board has now decided upon a very extensive and important scheme, involving an expenditure of fully £150,000. With this object in view, a Bill will be introduced into Parliament authorising the Board to reclaim land from the sea and to borrow £150,000 for this and the following purposes :— Dredging and the purchase, hire and maintenance of dredging appliances; the construction of quay walls and pitched elopes; extension of sewers and works of a like nature; the extension of existing wharves and stores, and the construction and erection of new wharves, jetties, sheds, and stores, and of cranes, and of other machinery, plant and appliances in connection therewith, the construction and formation of streets, and the purchase of any lands to give effect to the provisions of the proposed or any other Act of Parliament, and other harbour works.

Tbe main feature of this scheme will be the reclamation of Waterloo quay and Customhouse quay, to give an increased width of lOOffc right along to the present reclamationattheQueen's Wharf. Thisreclamation of theprincipal water frontage to the city will prove an incalculable boon and will be a great improvement to the city. When the work is completed a portion of ib will be handed over to the Government to enable them to erect a railway siding on Customhouse quay and to lay down a second line of rails from Thorndon to Te Aro. Provision ia also made for the erection of a new Customhouse on the land to be reclaimed on Waterloo quay, and the erection of Harbour Board stores when required. New and extensive wharf accommodation is also contemplated, such as the erection of wharves at Te Aro, the widening of the outer tee of the Queen's wharf, and the construction of an addition to the Railway wharf. These works, it is estimated, will absorb about £140,000 out of the £150,000. Another very important transaction which is being negotiated at the present moment is an exchange of endowments between the City Corporation and the Harbour Board. This is, I understand, practically completed, and by the transaction the.Harbour Board> *wfli acquire some 10 or 12 acres of an unreclaimed reserve at the Te Aro end of the city, giving in exchange one of their city endowment blocks, on which the commodious buildings occupied by Messrs Sargood, Son, and Ewen, Messrs Bannatyne and Co., and others now stand. This exchange, and the consequent reclamation of the large area at the Tβ Aro end of the harbour, will involve a atill further extensive expenditure on a work which will be of great benefit to a city like Wellington, where building sites are so few and far between. It will also no doubt have the effect of greatly enhancing the value of land in Te Aro.