MELBOURNE HARBOUR.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13159, 4 July 1908, Page 9

MELBOURNE HARBOUR.

MR FERGUSON'S RECOMMENDATIONS. . United Press AesooHition—By Electric Telegraph— Copyright. MELBOURNE, July 3. The Governor's speech at the opening of Parliament referred to the Government's intention to submit a scheme for improved harbour facilities, based on the recommendations of Mr Ferguson, consulting engineer to the Wellington Harbour Board. Mr Fercuson's scheme provides for a hug© deep water dook at Port Melbourne, and eventually a new deepwater canal from Port Melbourne to meet the Yarra at the city wharves, and the deepening of all the channels leading to tho port. At the present timo vessels of the largest tonnage cannot get up the river, in spite of tho enormous sums that have been expended from time to time in widening and deepening the Yarra, and in constructinc the great dock at West Melbourne. The big ships must bo berthed at the Port Melbourne piers, where a sufficient depth of water can only b«- maintained by constaj»fc dredging, and where cannot be handled nearly so conveniently, expeditiously, or choa-ply, as at the city wharves, while delays and loss of time in mooring and in getting away from the piers are chronic. At the "present moment there are no fewer than five governing bodies within the limits of Port Phillip—tho Marine Board, the Public Works Department, the Melbourne Harbour Trust, the Railway Department, and the Geelong Harbour Trust. Mr Fergusson proposes that one body should take over the powers of all these bodies.