PORIRUA HARBOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 97, 21 October 1936, Page 10

PORIRUA HARBOUR

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

(To tho Editor.)

Sir,—The Hon. Mr. Semple said, at the opening ceremony of the Paremata bridge, that the Government .was investigating a scheme for reclaiming a portion of Porirua Harbour. Mr. Semple mentioned an area of 700 acres. If land of any large area is reclaimed, it will be a pity and a great injustice will be done, for it would spoil Porirua Harbour as a port. A similar scheme to this near Onehunga was turned down ■ some time since on account of its effect on the Manukau Bar. Porirua Harbour, like Manukau, is dependent on the tides flowing in and out to keep the channels on the bar clear and if the water-inside is reduced, the bar will certainly have less water on it. : Porirua Harbour is the best proposition on the coast between Wellington and Wanganui. It compares favourably with some bar harbours in the Dominion which are regularly worked by coastal vessels. It has not changed much for a century according to old records. It has advantages over many bar harbours: there is nocriver bringing down sand and shingle, the bar and channel never change, it does not run out on an exposed coast line, but is protected by the reefs, north and south heads, and, to some extent, Mana Island. Porirua Harbour has always been used by a.fishing fleet, and is still, '■ and also by a large fleet of pleasure launches. It would be unforgivable vandalism: to destroy its value.as a port. It seems probable that when the railway tuimel is in use, there will be a large residential population adjacent to Porirua Harbour. This area' will need ' coal, timber, cement, lime, also fruit. These commodities are in plenty in the Tasman and Golden Bays, an easy trip across the straits from Porirua Harbour. The time will come before long, if it has not already arrived, when it will be a good business proposition to build a wharf for coastal vessels at Paremata. There is an excellent site just south of the railway bridge close to the.railway and the Great North Road; It would be a very cheap port to enter as there would be no large loan expenditure, practically the only charge would be the wages of a 1 wharfinger. Some time since a coastal vessel bound from Tasman Bay ports to Wellington with a deck load of bacon pigs, was held up in the strait by heavy south-east weather. She came in to Paremata crossing the bar at halftide and 'discharged the pigs on the site mentioned for a wharf. There are no mud flats .in Porirua Harbour, the banks are sand and shells, chiefly shells. Alluvium brought down by the creeks in'floods and fine material stirred up by the waves in stormy weather go out by the ebb tide, which carries its momentum past Plimmerton and Karehana Bay long after the new flood tide has commenced to run in round south head. The discoloured water joins the north-going flood tide and goes away up'the coast and does not enter the harbour again. So that Porirua Harbour is reftlled by fresh water every tide and is very clean. If it is decided to do^any reclamation it would be the fair thing to use material from the sand banks for some of the filling and by this means retain the flow of water over the bar and improve instead of destroying the harbour.—l am, etc., HY. B. FRANCE. Plimmerton, October 20.