MARINERS' GUIDES KARORI LIGHT ANO OTHERS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 108, 8 May 1913, Page 8

MARINERS' GUIDES KARORI LIGHT ANO OTHERS

. WORK TO COMMENCE SOON. i - ' Cook Strait navigators will be interested to learn that the Karori Rock light jij' shortly to be erected. The position was not determined without causing much difference of opinion on the part of j Mariners as to its suitability, but the #lte question being now settled, the next thing is, "the erection of the light. The' for this should be out in about three months' time. It was ordered 'through Gardner and Waern, sole agents fi>r Australasia at the time of ordering. The lamp is known as the > Aga cetone icetylene lfght, the gas being compress«jtl. It is a Swedish invention. With ■i}le machinery will also come out a email won turret lantern-house to hold the light. This will be set up on a concrete tower, 40ft" high. The rock itself, at its highest goint/; is ab6ut 25ft above sea-level. Befieath the lantern there will be a castIton chamber, in which the^ acetylene gas cylinders will be contained. Tho flow of gas will be so automatically regulated that it will shut off at sunrise &nd ' open at. sundown, even in cloudy weather when the sun is not visible. The storage capacity of the cylinders will be sufficient for four months' sup?>ly without renewal. Tho lenses of the ight will be protected by stout glass walls, and these will be easily cleanable ihould they become encrusted with salt Iti bad' weather and so dim the light. Access will be given "to the windows by & gallery running all round the lantern. ' The Karori R*ock is close in shore, and ihe concrete mixing for the tower will be done on the mainland at Tongue Point. The weather has all to do withthe duration of the work, for the maferials win have to be taken out to, the tpiftC iil dome small vessel. • - Mr. W. A. Fraser. who has been erecting a. new light on the Hen and Chickens ttnd superintending repairs at Mokohinu. tight, North Auckland, is at present at £he Kaipara in connection with the light lh that narbour, near Shelly Beach. He -is expected in. Wellington in a few day 6' iime, and the Work of the Karori Light 3?ill then be proceeded with. » Wellington Harbour • lights and buoys Ifrul undergo some change next month. The familiar red light buoy off' Point .tjfeeaingham will be removed for one ftKWath, and will be replaced by a black' buoy urtlighted as from Ist June. '• At Point .Halswell the black buoy will be temoved for good as from lst^ June,and its place taken by a tail, octagonal concrete beacon, which will be painted white. It will be unlighted, The tower is 21ft high above high water, and ie 9ft in diameter. There is plenty of water inside the present black buoy and the point, there'being 35ft of water close up to the land.