WESTPORT BAR AND HARBOUR

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27038, 13 May 1953, Page 8

WESTPORT BAR AND HARBOUR

Colliers Unable To Take Full Loads

SERIOUS PROBLEM FOR DISTRICT

(From Our Own Reporter) WESTPORT. May 12. The condition of the Westport bar and harbour is causing concern in the Buller district. Coal ships are not only being held in the harbour when they call to load because of bar ana weather conditions, but they are sailing under-loaded and in some cases considerably less than half loaded. Seven years have passed since two eminent English harbour engineers made their report and 18 months ago the Harbour Advisory Committee expressed “frustration and confusion over inactivity on harbour improvements. • The silting up of the bar and the poor equipment of the port to meet the demands for the transport of coal are strangleholds, which, the leading residents of the Buller argue, are slowly choking the economic life of the district. For more than two years, no dredging has been done on the bar, although the estimate by one engineer is that 700,000 cubic yards of fine sand have been deposited there annually. To make the position worse, a huge delta beyond the bar has been formed. The fear is that even if an “old man flood, such as was experienced in 1926, swept down the Buller river, the bar of fine sand would not be scoured because of its consolidation and that, if scouring took place, the sand would pile up as it would have no place beyond the bar in which to drop, so causing the flood waters to menace the town of Westport. . A glimmer of hope that the Westport harbour will not be allowed to become increasingly bar-bound by inaction, or by waiting until nature carves out a new entrance, has been seen in the assurance given the Harbour Advisory Committee that it will be invited to Wellington early next month to discuss the Buller’s key problem, with the Government, the Marine Department, the Ministry of Works, ana the Railways Department. Not only the bar—and the inability of ships to work it or to carry full cargoes of coal—but the state of the mile-long wharf at Westport is causing widespread concern. The last construction on the wharf was completed in 1916. It was twisted and buckled by the 1929 earthquake and the teredo worm has since gnawed devastatingly into the piles. Of the six berths for colliers, only two are being worked and when the three old ana weighty cranes lift the hoppers from the railway trucks and drop them into the ships’ holds the wharf becomes a “merry-go-round,” according to men who work on it. “Secret” Report No-one on the Harbour Advisory Committee or in a responsible position in Westport knows what the Government’s plans are for the improvement of the oar and harbour, nor do they know the contents of the report by the Railways Department, which controls it, on the wharf. Instructions were received from Wellington by the Marine Department that the Railways Department’s report was not to be made available to the committee, although it was appointed to advise the Minister of Marine on the equipping of the port to meet the demands for transport of coal to the best advantage from the national point of view, and especially to the North Island. <

The withholding of vital Information has caused restiveness among the committee, which, in a letter last December, informed the Minister of Marine that it was of the opinion that some definite statement of what he proposed doing about the harbour and its equipment should be made “both on behalf of your advisory committee and also the general public of Westport and Buller, who are restive over this lack of making your decisions known, or failure to make them.’’ The Westport harbour was formed by the building of two breakwaters, the work beginning about 1886. The western breakwater is 4776 ft long and the eastern 5020 ft All the granite blocks, the blocks weighing up to 25 tons, came from the quarry at Cape Foulwind, six miles to the south, by a railway, now overgrown and in hopeless disrepair. When no suitable rock could be found in the hills to the north of Westport, the railway-high-way bridge, still in use, ws« built to carry the cape rock to the eastern breakwater.

All the land now known as Carter’s Beach and the aerodrome was built up since the western breakwater was completed by the depositing of sand by the New South Wales current which sweeps along the coast. Equilibrium has been reached; and it is likely to be maintained until the breakwaters are extended, if that is ever done. On account of the wider entrance and better weather Conditions than at Greymouth, the entrance at Westport te much safer and its record for wrecks is good.

No Dredging for Twa Yem The trouble is that the bar te a bar to the working of the port. For more than two years now. no dredging has been done on it by the suction dredge Eileen Ward, which, although built in 1910. is still considered efficient. The cessation of dredging was decided on to see whether the river or the littoral drift was the cause of the bar -trouble. Whatever the conclusions reached, the deterioration of the bar is obvious. On April 22. the Titoki, which normally carries 600 tons of coal to Tarakohe, struck the bar when loaded with only 361 tons after being in port for three days and the tug itself recently bumped when going out to make surveys. Although 700,000 cubic yards of sand are estimated to be deposited antfually on the bar, the dredge te capable of Rfring, under the best conditions, only 500,000 cubic yards a year. Further the English engineers estimated that m addition to dredging 700,000 tons annually, an accumulation of about 20 times that amount would have to be removed before the 1 1928-30 conditions were restored “Sand can best be trapped and removed before it reaches the fairway,’’ the English engineers said. The principal recommendation of the late Mr F. W. Furkert in his 1945 report was to arrest the littoral drift by building a groyne half a mile long at Tauranga Point, just south of Cape Foulwind.

Although at various times. 11 New Zealand engineers have emphasised the imperative need for dredging, dredging has stopped. The English engineers merely reported their view that the present suction dredging on the bar should be discontinued unless its efficacy can be proved.” They were of the opinion “that the efficacy of the present dredging of the bar at Westport should be thoroughly investigated The possibility of day and night operations by working three shifts and dredging over the area west of the bar should also be examined as they would demonstrate the effect of intensified dredging.” Three New Zealand engineers (Messrs Furkert. I. Wood, and W. L. Newnham) who reported later recommended that dredging should be Proceeded with and plans for a new dredge prepared.

Government Viewpoint Even if dredging was resumed tomorrow. the Eileen Ward would not be u to workthe bar because of the shallowness. In a telegram to the Harbour Advisory Committee in February, the Minister of Marine said investigaHons then nearing completion indicated J he j ? dverse conditions h hedging was necessarily carried out on the West Coast dredging would have little or no effect “My Present conditions are substantially the result of the lowest rainfall period for 50 years. Referee to port records show that when P° lic y was operative bar depths at neap tides have frequently been less.” °5 local opinion is Preexplosives on Hie consolidated bar A “•SB “e&& Odin 31 Th in 1947 , 63 34in - and in 1930 54.04 m. The records show that in the years of low rainfall ships took full cargoes. Since dredging wag begun and" until ft was suspended. 14,500 000 cubic yards of material were dredged

The English engineers argued thatu 1926 no dredging was done, yet tai bar improved. The year 1926 wtf thill of the big flood when heavy eo»l storms were followed by north-irat| weather. The floods scoured the bn to an additional depth of 20 felt, I Westerly weather at Westport itmjii gives a bad bar, because it aec*| tuates the drift. Good conditions oh tain when there is a fresh in the riv« and northerly weather. “Flood* freshets are not very frequent by canJ parison with Greymouth and not ftel quent enough to be of much servic* H maintaining depths on the bar, althom a very strong freshet or heavy flow: will produce very good results hl scouring a bad bar,” i eported the Buj lish engineer:!. An eight-knot fttal was said to be necessary to scour frj bar, but this was obtained for cafel five days in 1945, while the river ml normal (one knot) for 240 days. V«7I heavy floods occurred in ocesdotal years (1877, 1896, 1900, 1903, !«#. W 1926) the maximum recorded in Or being 270,000 cusecs, against the nonw flow of 7000 to 8000 cusecs. “But thMj are of importance only when ccnmj ering flood prevention measure* »M| not as agencies for harbour entrance,” said the XDOi engineers. Men who have M studied the Westport harbour num against that opinion, the deep scout ing done by the 1926 flood. A great flood, however, has not» curred in the last two years to sad the bar—or to flood Westport. W building of tidal compartments in w lagoon by dredging to give a faster heavier outward flow to dear w channel has not been begun and,» work has been done on the flo*tw basin and other developmental wen advocated by engineers. / Trade Fluctuattens Meanwhile, the harbour and i# trade are slipping. The peak yjg for Westport were before World wtf I when two naval colliers ran • shuttle service to Hong Kong and toW ships bunkered at the port. In UK 800,000 tons of coal were shipped. quantity fell gradually during the wtf and then recovered to 630,000 tons® 1931. During the depression, the nage of coal dropped to 300,000 * rose to a new peak of 500,000 tons 1942. The decline ha* since «** steady, the lowest tonnage ever » corded being 270,000 in 1951. the J* of the strike. Last year, 300,000 «• were shipped. Over the year*, number of ships entering the port n> dropped, but the ships now carrym coal are bigger. . The seriousness of the rendition " the Westport harbour is illustrated ® the cargoes taken by coal s * li P* , .rl stead of the ships arriving on one «« and leaving on the next—which is goal of those advocating harboiu »w provements and mechanical coal ling—they are often held in portTOJ they have left not only underlosa* 1 but heavily underloaded in some cases, below half-loaded. normal load of the ship* regum’ calling at Westport is 3000 ton*, cept for the Titoki. The cargoes taken since with the time in port given in P® I** 1 ** thesis, have been: Kaitangata ary 22-24) 1996 tons; Koriri 27-28) 2550 tons; Kaitangata ary 29-31) 2606 tons; (February 2323 tons, Kaitawa (February 1753 tons; Kokiri (February 10-12) tons; Kaiapoi (February 16-1") tons; Kaitawa (February 20-21) u tons; Konui (February 28-Marcn ’ 2241 tons; Kaiapoi (March 2-3) tons; Kaitawa (March 2-4) 2358 Konui (March 6-9) 2304 tons; Kjw? (March 11-13) 1931 tons; Koriri 13-16) 2264 tons; Kaiapoi (March 1239 tons; Kaitangata (March 2W 1247 tons: Kaiapoi (March 27-28) tons; Kokiri (March 27-31) 17w w (April 11-14) 1699 tons; Kaiapoi (W? 7-14) 1647 tons; Kaitawa (April ** 1763 tons (May 1) 1754 tons. With such underloading and continuing another increase in is expected. It is another uneasiness for the future weltering, the harbour, the town ana the =—=====