THE DRY-DOCK SITE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 104, 4 May 1911, Page 8

THE DRY-DOCK SITE.

WET DOCK OR RECLAMATION' Presently the Wellington Harbour Board will be obliged to ponder about the basin vainly excacated for a dry dock. The many piles driven in to facilitate the construction of the dock aie to be drawn out, by contract, with Mr. Pulley, who has signed on to complete the work by 31st July next. Thus the Harbour Board will have a clear basin, 40ft to 45ft deep at low water, and will have to decide what is to be done about it. A business man has suggested that the site is suitable for a wet dock to accommodate one large steamer and several smaller ones simultaneously. Enquiries made by a representative of The Post have brought leplies to the effect that the wet dock idea cannot be entertained. A wet dock, it is submitted, is adopted in places which are compelled by topography or important tidal variations to take that course. In Wellington Harbour the tide fluctuations do not furnish any problem. «i TT o 6t6 t ■ a i' SUment a S ai » s t'" v.-et dock at the Lly do-quay site summarises thus :— (1) A wet dock is not necessary ; (2) ike cost of building the requisite retaining wall and decking to make berths for vessels would at least equal the cost of running a convenient wharf into the open waterway; (2) the basin is not large enough for tho convenicMit manoeuvring of steamers, except the units of a "mosquito fleet" ; (4) the site is too valuable to devote to an unnecessary wet dock. It is explained that the dredge will be able to fill up the hole with spoil from the Falcon Shoal and thus secure a large patch of ground worth far more than tho cost of reclamation. Tha cutting of the Falcon Shoal is. of course, a benefit by widening the deep entrance to the harbour. During the election campaign the Hon. J. E. Oenkinson suggested that it was worth while consideiing whether Greater "Wellington's new railway station should be built at the Te Aro end, with tho dock site to help to supply the 'requisite space. How much laud has the Railway Department at the Thorndon end ? How much has it in miud ? How much reclamation will the depaitmeut do abreast^f the Thorndon Esplanade? Has the aepartment figured out the possible expansion of Wellington within the next two or three decades? These questions are being asked by somo citizens.