CASTLEPOINT LIGHT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1336, 13 January 1912, Page 4

CASTLEPOINT LIGHT.

■> STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER,. Objections woro recently put forward by tho Shipmasters' Guild to the site selected for tho new lighthouse at Castlopoint. On behalf of tho guild, it was urged that a lighthouse erected at any one of a number of other places would be more useful than one at Cashpoint. Tho Hon. J. A. Millar (Minister l'or Marine) slated yesterday that a sufficient elevation 1 for the light could not ho obtained oil tho suggested alternative silo at Flat Point. Most of tho local shipmasters • were in favour of Plat Point, but when an examination was mado by Captain Blackburn and Captain Bollon's, as well as Mr. Allport (Secretary of tho Marine Department) and Mr. Holmes (Engineer). it was found impossiblo to place the light high enough to give it sufficient range. The most, serious tiiint; is that olf Flat Point, a distanco of three to fivo miles, there are sunken rocks. "It is a well recognised princinlo among i'*hthonse authorities all over tho world," says Mr. Millar, "tha.t you must nover put a light'at-the lwck of'a danger, because shipping, when tho weather is thick, knowing tho light is tliore, will be tempted to go closer to the danger until it is tra-ppcd. On tho other hand, at Castlepoint, there is a splendid site for the tower 100 feet above high water, enabling a light to l>e shown at a lwight of 170 ft., giving it a range of-about twenty miles in thick weather."