PORT FACILITIES

Evening Post, Volume CVIV, Issue 2, 3 January 1925, Page 8

PORT FACILITIES

NEW WHARFAGE BUILDING

IMPORTANT WORKS IN HAND

BUSINESS MOVING NORTHWARDS.

Harbour Board statistics are interesting in that they set out in detail or in general fashion, in the form of grand totals, the volume and value of the trade of the port, but trade does not develop without a corresponding (and preceding) development of port facilities ; the improvements and additions to those facilities are also of quite general interest. Whether or not the financial year will prove to be a record one is yet to be shown by the figures, certainly it has been an exceptionally good year. Certainly, also, the calendar year just ended has been a,record as regards the number and extent of harbour improvement works completed or in hand. OIL'S THE THING. To commence at the furthest wharf.' A certain amount of preliminary dredging and the necessary detail surveying for the new Miramar oil wharf have already been carried out, and the first big order of steel has been placed with the manufacturers. The Burnham wharf is a sign of the times, oil's the thing. The new wharf, which will be in the form of a breastwork of sufficient length to accommodate two big tankers, has been. made a, necessity by the decision of the British Imperial Oil Company to make Wellington its New Zealand distributing centre, and over it (or more probably under it) and round the roadway will be pumped the light and heavy petroleum oils to the huge bulk tanks now Heing erected well up the Miramar valley. The existing Miramar wharf is also being brought up to date, oil's the thing again, but the increase in the amount of coal and timber handled over this wharf has also made for. the necessity of greater accommodation. Two .more big tanks for the storage of fuel oil have recently been built by the Union Company just through the cutting, and this will mean that" oil traffic over the wharf will increase, but apart from the certainty that more and- more tankers will be calling at the Miramar wharf there is the fact that recently built oil boats are big ships, and one, the Shreveport, overhung the wharf by something like 100 feet;: consequently an extension of the'wharf has become essential. There have been many delays on account of-the difficulty in obtaining regular and adequate supplies of hardwood, piling, and . comparatively little pile-driving has been done during the last two months or so, though latterly snpplies have come to hand. The wharf extension is already reaching out over very deep water, SO feet at one corner, as a sufficient supply of piles to reach bottom - securely in this, depth' of water is not to be had, the splicing of two piles has been resorted toi . THE OLD QUEEN'S WHARF. ' About half the big job of reconstruct- 1 ing the approach to the T's and arras of the Queen's Wharf is now compKted. This approach, the. original Queen's Wharf, was built in 1862, and so good was the quality of the totara used for piling that the wood,.when examined, was;found to be in,first-rate condition. The decking and girderihg above water,, however, had suffered as the sixty-odd years went by, and a rebuilding had become, advisable, if not thoroughly necessary. .. " '■' The new approach is of ferro-concrete, a very solid job, and presumably precedes—by a good many years—the reconstruction in concrete of the newer portions of the wharf. As soon as the southern side of. the approach is completed, the northern side will be tackled, and when the whole job is completed the approach will be about 11 feet wider than the old wooden approach. BETTER OFFICE ACCOMMODA- : TION. A decision was Teached at a recent meeting of the Harbour Board to extend the rather cramped board offices by moving the board and committee rooms to the Queen's Bond building adjoining. Ultimately the board will rebuild the headquarter offices, but the arrangement will carry ahead for a good many years without the expenditure of any. very great sum. MORE OIL. -A minor improvement has been carried out in connection with the oil-fuel-ling of the Wellington-Lyttelton ferry steamers—the placing 'of permanent supply pipes under the ferry whaif to enable the oil hulk to lie right out of the way on the off side of the wharf and pump away to the steamers' storage tanks. "Oil fuelling has made all the differference in the world to the ferry service," remarked a waterfront official to a 'Post' reporter to-day. "No waiting, no delays. ■ Do you recall any other | year m which daylight trips were run off so definitely to timetable ?" The board is also setting about the construction of another oil wharf at the end of the Thorndon breastwork, but here case and barrel oils only will be [ handled. There are two main coneidi erations at the back of this decision, the advisabi ity of keeping such inflammable stuff well away from other shipping and goods and also the advantage which wm follow the unloading of case oils as near as possible to the oil stores at lhorndon and Kaiwmta.

A MOVE NORTHWARDS. «r?H com Pletion of the big Pipitea Wharf, one of the finest reinforced concrete wharves in Australasia, has been one of the highlights of the Harbour Board year. The bitumen surfaciuo- has been completed and the railway tracks are in full operation. The shed" is practically completed, and is already pretty well stacked up with wool and'flax for the.most part. The four overhead electric cranes 'for the shed and the' " semiportal." hydraulic-cranes for the wharf are now on the water. The semi-portal crane_ will be new to Wellington; it will have one long leg reaching down to the special rail track on the wharf and a short leg supported on a runway on the wharf shed.

A remarkable feature of the year has been the manner in which wharf business has crept steadily northwards. A year ago ths long breastwork at Thorndon was used for little more than' a tying-up place for boats at the time °l? t. o£ ob- To-day . business at the 1 ipitea 'Wharf and along the breastwork is pretty brisk, and the recently-com-pleted northern sheds and stores are in demand from merchants and shippers, lhe trend northwards, however is only just beginning, for the completion o"f the Thorndon sea wall will provide a great breastwork frontage, and plans were Jong ago drawn up Tor two more ± lpiteas " running out from the present Thorndon breastwork, to be styled the Lainbton and Thorndon Wiiares, works for the future, but perhaps a fnture not so very distant;

To-morrow afternoon the Port Nicholson Silver Band will play at Island Bay and the Tramways Band at Wellington Hosei int.