WELLINGTON HARBOUR

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1244, 28 September 1911, Page 6

WELLINGTON HARBOUR

MEETING OF THE BOARD'. The monthly meeting of the Wellington Harbour BoaTcl was held last night. There were present: The chairman (Mr. I!. Fletcher), and Messrs. Cohbe, Macfarlane, Harkncss, Daniells, Cohen, .Tone,", Tewsley, Fitzgerald, Freeth, Rcnucr, and Trevor. , PILOTAGE. , The. chairman reported concerning negotiations made by him about the pilotage service hitherto rendered to the board by the Harbour Ferries, Ltd., anil tho renewal of tho agreement, now expired, for tho continuance of the service. Ho (the chairman) had arranged that tho stipulated two hours' notico in tho previous agreement be reduced to half an hour in the daytime, and one hour at night. "With this alteration he had arranged for the continuance of the contract with the Ferries Company on the same terms as formerly. He moved that tho contract be renewed for three years. The motion was agreed to.

» FIRE SERVICE, t The chairman stated that be had . negotiated with the manager of the Union » Company about the board getting the services of tho fire-float in the event of a | firo occurring in any of the board's sheds. ) The company had agTeed to grant the i board the services of their fire-float at . a minimum charge of ,£25 for the first i two .hours, and SlO per hour for extra i time. He considered that the minimum charge of .£25 was reasonable enough, but : he thought the charge of .£lO per hour ; was a little too high, i On tho chairman's suggestion it was , agreed that tho matter of concluding the ; negotiations and the agreement be left in the hands of tho chairman, with power to act. DEBENTURES. Tho chairman reported further that on September 6 the first drawing of debentures of the board's consolidated loan, for redemption on February 28, 1912, took place. Twenty debentures of £100 each had been redeemed. ■ A COSTLY ACCIDENT. ■ There were some remarks made about the Court's judgment in the Baillie case, an action for damages which had cost the board „£11>"6—.£1250 for the verdict and the balance for law costs' The chairman stated, in reply to a question, that nothing had been done to obyiato the recurrence of any such liability from a similar cause m future. The same accident might occur to-morrow, but tho cost of insuring against it was prohibitive. He suggested that the board should establish a fund to meet such contingent losses. Nothing could be done during the progress of tho caso to improve or amend the method of working tho capstan, but the engineer had now an improved plan ready to put into operation. Tho question of establishing an accident insurance fund was left to the Wharves and Accounts Committee. HARBOURS' ASSOCIATION. The chairman (who is also president of the harbours' Association) and Messrs. Tcwsley, Harkness, and Jones were appointed to represent the board at the Harbours Conference; to be held in Wellington on Tuesday : next. THE HARBOURS ACT. The board in committeo approved a number of suggested amendments to tho Harbours Amendment Act, 1910, and decided that copies of the amendments bo forwarded to the Marino Department and tho Harbours' Association. Generally the amendments-referred to detail reforms to cheapen tho.cost of Harbour Board tions.