PORT OF MELBOURNE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 83, 9 April 1910, Page 5

PORT OF MELBOURNE.

SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS. REPORT BY SIR W. MATTHEWS. I | A NEW PIER. 0/ Telegraph— Pr««» A»§ociation.-Copjright, (Received April 9, 10 a.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. A report brought fiom London by Mr. W. Davidson, Inspector-General of Public Work", embodying a scheme of harbour improvement* prepared by Sir William Matthews, the well-known engineer and a member of tho firm of Coade, Son, and Matthews, hat> been submitted, to Cabinet. The report condemns the short-cut scheme recommended by Mr. W. Ferguson, of Wellington. It recommends a new pi*r at the point where Mr. Ferguson recommended a short pier. The pier it- to be 1800 ft long and 210 ft wide, affording accommodation for four of the Urgent liners likely to come here. Exclusive of railway lines and connections, the pier would cost £370,000. The report provides for the construction, later on, of other piers. Mr. Davidson wan sent to England by the Government to vint the principal ports and dry docks in Great Britain, aaid inspect, (the facilities at the shipping centres for the handling of caigo, then to place tho whole of the local fact* and data of which he is possessed before a prominent firm of harbour and dock engineers, and collaborate with them in the production of a scheme suitable <o Melbourne's needs. Tho Federal Government was at-ked to authorise Mr. Davidson to consult the Admiralty autlrcrrities as to tho naval requirements concerning dry dock accommodation, and ho wap to bring back with him plan* and speculations of tho most modern docks and dock equipment. The various ju-hemes considered involve the expenditure of a very large amount of money, and the Cabinet was not disposed to embark upon any one of them unless it was fo-itihed by "the advice of the best English experts.