AT BARING HEAD

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 51, 24 November 1930, Page 12

AT BARING HEAD

New Lighthouse Site A GENEROUS GIFT Supplanting Pencarrow Flans for the transfer of the lighthouse and fog-signal from Pencarrow Head to Baring Head were advanced another stage last week, when Mr. G. C. Godfrey, secretary of tiie Marine Department, and Mr. H. H. Sharp, inspecting engineer of the Public Works Department, met Mr. Eric Riddiford, of Orongorongo, of whose property Baring Head forms part, and selected an area of land for the new site. When the transfer of the light was first mooted, Mr. Riddiford generously offered to give the necessary land free of charge. He has always been keenly interested in the welfare of the seafarers who pass in and out of Wellington in sight of his homestead, and he welcomed the proposal to transfer the lighthouse to Baring Head. On Thursday he conducted his visitors over the site and its approaches, and at his invitation a generous area was selected — sufficiently large to accommodate the lighthouse and fog signal, and the keeper’s house, and also to provide a fairly large garden and grazing for cows. In addition to the land, Mr. Riddiford is also giving an easement for a road to connect the site with the main road up the Wainui-o-mata Valley, so that it will be possible to transport stores to the lighthouse by land instead of having to depend on weather conditions to get them ashore from the lighthouse tender. Sentinel of Cook Strait. Baring Head is the extremity of the remarkable promontory which juts out midway between Pencarrow Head and the bold headland of Taurakirae. It lies about four miles to the south-east of Pencarrow Head, from which it is separated by Fitzroy Bay, and is equidistant from Taurakirae which forms the southern extremity of the Rimutaka range bounding the west side of Palliser Bay. Baring Head promontory is a fairly extensive plateau, 80 to 100 feet above sea level, surmounted by the knoll known as Para, and overlooking on its eastern side the mouth of the Wainui-o-Mata river. Midway between Baring Head and Taurakirae the Orongorongo River meets the sea. A magnificent panorama of ocean and mountain scenery spreads around Baring Head. Away to the south-east just showing clear of Taurakirae lies the high headland of Cape Palliser, the southern extremity of the North Island. To the southward can be seen the bold peaks of the Kaikouras with lofty Tapuaenuku towering 10,000 feet. Nearer, but still thirty-five miles away, is the white-scar-red headland of Cape Campbell with its lighthouse, and, stretching thence across the far side of Cook Strait the hills and plains of Marlborough can be seen in a wide expanse behind Cloudy Bay, about Pdrt Underwood, and almost to the entrance of Tory Channel. Cape Terawhiti away to the north-west is hidden, but the little light tower on Karori Roek, and Tongue Point show up beyond Sinclair Head, which marks the western approach to Port Nicholson. Betwceu Sinclair Head and Pencarrow one looks across to Island Bay and Lyall Bay, and the clustering homes on the hillsides of Wellington. Behind Baring Head are the mountains, hills, and valleys of Orongorongo Station, whose beautiful homestead nestles in trees and gardens on a slight rise above the sea beach between the mouths of the Wainui-o-mata and the river from which it takes its name. Overlooking the valley behind is Kottimu. 2578 feet, from whose rugged top can be seen the five lights of Cape Campbell, The Brothers, Karori Rock. Pencarrow and Somes Island, and a wonderful view of Wellington. Natural Site for Lighthouse. The advantages of Baring Head over Pencarrow as a site for the main lighthouse have been stressed for many years by shipmasters. The transfer will place tiie light well out in front of most of the dangers of the approach to Wellington, and will efficiently light the eastern part of Cook Strait and the coastline out to Cape Palliser. Baring Head is very seldom obscured by mist or fog, as compared with the much higher site on Penearrow. It is proposed to install at Baring Head the most up-to-date type of automatic light, similar to that recently placed at Cape Egmont, comprising a revolving lens with a fixed incandescent acetylene-burner and a sun-valve. The new light will have a minimum range of 25 miles in ordinary clear weather. It will be screened to open about two miles off Black Roek, Cape Palliser to the eastward, one mile off Karori Rock, and about half a mile off Toms Rock and Sinclair Head to the westward. In this way masters of ships comin in from either direction will know that they lire clear of all dangers off Cape Palliser, or off Tongue Point and Sinclair Head, when they open up Baring Head light. A valuable auxiliary to the Baring Head light will be the low-level light at Penenrrow. which is under the control of the Wellington Harbour Board. The tower is being raised to give the new and more powerful automatic light recently imported, and about to be installed, a focal plane of 60 feet above sea level, and a range of at least 15 miles in clear weather. The present high-level light on Pencarrow Head has done duty for nearly 72 years. Erected at a cost of £5OOO. it was first lighted on January 1. 1850. The tower, which is of iron in sections, will be used to house tiie new light on Baring Head, and will be shifted to the new site by a roadway which is to be formed along the shore of Fitzroy Bay.