THE HARBOR BOARD.

Evening Star, Issue 5968, 28 April 1882, Page 4

THE HARBOR BOARD.

We continue our report of yesterday’s meeting:— • The Engineer reported as to the operations of the new dredge. So far its workings only showed that half the estimated Ufting-

powerhad been obtained. The moorings having now arrived an opportunity would be Afforded of definitely ascertaining the extent pi, its capabilities.—Referred to the Works , :i ,Qn the reading of the Finance Committee’s report, Mr Fish said that the Board had a valid -- /claim against the Government for L 7,000. He was not in favor of bogus sums being applied for. Mr Ross was of a like opinion, hud said that payment of the money had only been withheld on a mere quibble. In the , . course of a desultory discussion which ensued on the reading of the last clause in the report, some dissatisfaction was exjpresseffat the fact that in re-considering the question of increased dues the charge for coals was overlooked. The amended regula- . tions increased the dues to Is per ton at Fort Chalmers and ,2s per ton at Dunedin. Mr Fish moved, Mr Mill seconded, and it was resolved—“ That the question of the alteration of the regvdatiqns with regard to dues on" coal he remitted to the Finance Committee, for the purpose of preparing an amended regulation, WORKS COMMITTEE,

The Works Committee reported that after *' ’' duly considering the recommendations of the Board’s Engineer it was resolved to recommend that the captain of the dredge have general control when under weigh, but during dredging operations the winchmen, . firemen, and engineer to be under the control of the dredge master, but general cooperation expected under all circumstances. This to continue during the term of contractors’ maintenence, at the termination of which the matter to be revised if necessaiyi As to a letter from the Wellington Harbor Board re leasing or purchasing a dredge, the Committee have replied that at present the Board have nothing likely to be suitable for their circumstances available either for leasing or selling. The Harbory '.blaster having strongly urged objections to ' the putting down of screw moorings in the position proposed at Port Harrington for the convenience of the new diedge when working at the bar, and it appearing to the • Committee after full inquiry that the advantages, if any, compared to the cost i of the moorings and the putting them down ■ would not be commensurate therewith, authorised the Engineer to arrange with the contractor to vary his contract and put down one of the moorings at Port Chalmers where formerly it had been agreed to put one, and only delayed until the new railway ■pier was completed or available. This the Engineer had succeeded in carrying out on reasonable terras. As to Messrs Haggitt’s letter re Messrs Gillow and Stephen’s claims, it was resolved to recommend the Board to defend any action that may be brought against • it. The Committee being unwilling to delay the placing of the dredge on the bar longer than was absolutely necessary to insure her safe working, and the Janet M’Neil, oh beard of , which the bar moorings were, making rather along passage, requested on the2othinst. . the Chief Harbor-master “to especially rej port as to* whether there is danger in working on the bar till the new moonngs are available, and to advise the Board definitely oil thereubjeofr, having ih view the necessity of operating on the bar without unheceshairjr amay.’* His report, which, the Committee approved of, recommended that immediately the new moorings now in harbor were available the dredge be . placed on the bar, ' The Finance Committee having referred a list of sundry plant recommended : by the Engineer to oe sold as not ; riiqtdred,the Board were recommended to give the Committee power to sell what they may consider advisable.

PROPOSED FUTURE WORKS. The following reports by the Engineer were remitted by the Works Committee for the Board’s favorable consideration : Herewith is attached estimate prepared in accordance with the views of the Committee as ascertained at the last meeting. It will be seen that the proposed expenditure necessary to (jive effect to the requirements is about L 150.000. The t ; rae required to carry out the works will depend upon the result of the new dredge’s operations upon the bar. Assuming that the Vulcan, New Era, side dredge, and Priestman’s crane will bo kept fully at work, and the new dredge available for the channel, say nine months in each year, then the combined average capability of the dredging plant might be taken at BCD.OOO cubic yards per annum ; so that, calculating at that rate the total excavations enumerated in the estimate viz., 2,030,000 cubic yards—the time would be two and a-half years. The accompanying tracirur exhibits two blocks of land that can, by the result of Mait’and street excavation and deposit by dredgings, be made available for leasing purposes, the former shaded red and the latter blue. 1 have taken it for granted that the Board shall bo relieved from further obligation in re Maitland street works after the block extending between Jetty street and the temporary railway embankment is reclaimed. The area beyond this block is assumed to be reclaimed by ordinary refuse and street excavations at no expense to the Board. The areas, exclusive of streets, are as followsßetween Jetty street and temporary railway embankment, nine acres; area beyond, two and a-half acres ; between Rattray street Wharf and southern side of dock, nineteen and a-ha’f acres; total, thirty-one acres. In addition to this, Ravensbourne Bay, containing twenty-two and a-half acres, and a portion of the endowment near the present baths opposite derrick No. 3, will be reclaimed from the material arising from the dredging quantity stated in estimate. D. L. Simpson, Engineer. Est.mated Cost op tub Follow no Works. £ s. d. £ s. d. Dredging and depositing— Main channel to a bottom width of 15 feet and depth of ISfeet, 1,200, CX) cubic yards at 10U .. 50,000 0 0 Steamers’ basin and mouth of same to a depth of 17 feet, 430,000 cubic yards at 9d 18,125 0 0 Channel along southern side of dock' to a width of 400 feet and depth of 22 feet, 400,000 cubic yards at 9d .. .. 15,000 0 0 Wharfage, 30 feet wide— End of Rattray street wharf, 970 lineal feet at £ls 14,550 0 0 Southern side of dock, 1,300 lineal feet at £ls .. 19,500 0 0 Reclamation of block of land between Jetty street and temporary railway embankment, from Maitland street excavation .. .. •• 9,000 0 0 Extra for Ravensbourne Bay reclamation in spreading sand arising from dredging .. •• •• 2,500 0 0 Widening road alongside Jetty street wharf extension .. .. .. 1,500 0 0 Repairs to wharves, jetties, sheds, etc. 1,000 0 0 New sheds .. .. ■ • • • 5,000 0 0 Half-tide wall, 76,600 cubic yards at 2s 7,660 0 0 £141,835 0 0 Engineering, supervision, and unforeseen contingencies ..

£150,000 0 0

The Engineer subsequently wrote :—“On revising my estimate lately submitted to the Works Committee as to future requirements, I would request to have the amount set down for reclamation from Maitland street works increased to L 12,000, so that contingencies hereafter arising and now unforeseen might be fully provided for. I may here state that the estimate prepared to meet the views of the Committee had reference only to works in the Upper Harbor, being part of the original scheme. The dredge’s operations on the bar would require to be added to the estimated total amount if the cost is to be taken out of the loan. As the bar deepening is to a great extent an experimental work, an estimate of time to complete and consequent cost must of necessity be based upon speculative grounds. _ The working expenses of the dredge approximate LSOO per month. Assuming, therefore, that three months of the year would be devoted to the bar, an additional item of expenditure to those items already submitted—of L 3,750 —would be necessary for the two and a-half years, the time which the works are expected to take. I would advise the Board to add to the L 150,000 the cost of additional reclamation, and L 7,000 for bar work, etc., making in all a total of L 160,000. The estimated cost of a channel between Kilgour Point and Dunedin, based on a width of 150 ft and a depth of 16ft, - will be L3B,ooorthat is, L 12,000 less than the channel provided for in the schedule attached to memo, under date 20th inst.”

Mr Fish, in moving the adoption of the reports, said that, it being impracticable to proceed in the direction of carrying out the scheme of harbor works as originally laid down in Mr Simpson’s plan, it became a question as to how much of the original scheme should drop, and how much the Board should go on with at the present time. He thought it would be conceded on all hands (except perhaps by a few partial persons) that, in order to make useful the work that had already been done, it was absolutely necessary to do more; that if they were to stop at the present time and in the position in which' they now were, the practical result would be that all the money which had been expended up to the present time would be absolutely wasted and thrown away. To stop the operation of dredging the Lower Harbor would be an act of suicidal folly—one of madness and pusillanimity—which no amount of sophistry and argument could possibly justify for one single moment. It was undoubtedly the duty of the Works Committee to show clearly to the Board, and the Board afterwards to show to the public, whether the extra burdens which would have to be borne would or would not be compensated by the improvements and he intended showing that the works proposed to be prosecuted could be carried on without any evil resulting. Now it had been said that even if the channel were made big enough steamers would not come up to the Dunedin wharves. It was utter nonsense and quite absurd to suppose anything of the sort. Steamers were bound to go where the interests of the mercantile public led them, and it was a well-known fact, too, that the Union Company’s beats cost 10 per cent, more to be repaired at Port Chalmers than they would were they docked at Dunedin. The Engineer had said that the cost of the proposed works would reach a sum of L 150,000. He had now added another LIO,OOO, which he (Mr (Fish) did not take into consideration; but it would not make much difference. Then the estimated cost of the new works proposed was L 150,000. Interest upon that sum would amount possibly to L 9,000, and it was necessary to show that the reclamations to be achieved by the works to be carried out would yield a revenue to the Board of that amount, if it did not exceed it. He might in passing say that it was proposed to reclaim the blocks of land to the south of Jetty street, and that in Crawford street, from the Maitland street works. The block between the Rattray street jetty and the steamers’ wharf it was proposed to reclaim from the dredged material; consequently the estimated cost of dredging the channel, as laid down by the Engineer in his estimate, comprised also the entire reclamation of the Ravensbourne Bay. The thing the Board had to do was to satisfy the public, and the mercantile public in particular, that the carrying out oi their future operations would not increase the burdens upon them. With regard to reclamation, there was another two and a-half acres of land at the extreme end of the block of land which the Works Committee had not taken into account at all. It was proposed to leave that to be filled up with rubbish, which had always to be deposited somewhere. In the course of two or three years it was expected that two and a-half acres would be filled up by this means at no cost. It was situated at the extreme south end, near the Anderson Bay road. That would be an additional source of revenue. It might be questioned whether all this land would be utilised by the public. He thought it would, for it would be put into the market as it was reclaimed, bit by bit, and there would thus be no fear of glutting it. It might be said, if they required to spend only L 160,000, they should not attempt to seek for powers from Parliament to borrow more than that amount of money. He thought they should adhere to the previous recommendation of the Finance Committee to borrow the full amount of L 300.000, because although he would not advocate the raising of more than L 160,000, still he thought they should have the right to borrow more, because he could see that not only would it be necessary to expend money now, but that it would also be profitable and advisable to spend more in the future, after the lapse of some years. He proposed now to go into what he conceived to be solely the financial position of the Board, and though the figures he was going to give might not be mathematically correct, he thought they were sufficiently so for general purposes. He could

not help saying that an unnecessary feeling of alarm had been created in the minds of the , public with regard to the financial position of the Board, and also that the feeling was created mainly and principally on account of the unfortunate premature production and publication of what might be termed the Finance Committee’s No. 1 report. He thought if that report had not been issued until it was supplemented by the very excellent No. 2 report, the feeling of alarm undoubtedly excited would not have arisen, and the lot they had had to do to clear the atmosphere would not have been necessary. There was not the slightest necessity, with ordinary prudent management, for any fear for the Board, financially or otherwise. His calculations were based upon two things: First, that the differential rates now existing at Port Chalmers should be assimilated to those collected in Dunedin; and secondly, that they should levy indiscriminately upon all exports from this port a uniform rate, without exception, of Is fid per ton. It was expressly declared by parliamentary sanction, in the wording of the Act, as a harbor improvement rate —that meant a rate for the improvement of the whole harbor; and if that were so, upon what ground of common sense or fair argument could it be held for a moment that there should be a difference in the rates levied at Port Chalmers and Dunedin ? His own opinion was that if fair representations were made to Parliament the injustice of the differential rate would be shown, and the matter remedied. The question of charging Is fid per ton on exports was a matter, of course, that intimately concerned the mercantile public of Dunedin; but looking over and thinking as seriously as he could of the position, he really could not see why the merchants of Dunedin should feel themselves hard pressed by the rate. It was fid lower than what was charged at Lyttelton, and surely if the people there could bear a rate of that kind—fid in excess of what was proposed - Dunedin merchants should not object. If these two items were conceded there was no necessity, in his opinion, to increase the dues in another direction by a single farthing. What he asked the merchants of Dunedin to do was : Firstly, to unite with the Board con anwre, withoutany dissension whatever, for the purpose of urging upon Parliament to concede this differential rate, and then the export rate would go largely in the direction of meeting difficulties. He thought that the revenues of the Board were of such an elastic character that they could well afford to fall intoarrear to the extent of LI,OOO or L 1,500 per annum, trusting to the future to be able to recoup it. It would appear that a number of the mercantile public were sorely exercised with regard to the ad valorem rate. They seemed to think if the Board obtained power to raise their revenue by an ad valorem duty first of all it must be of a fixed character, and then that it would be excessively oppressive upon several industries and people who traded here. Now the object oi the Board was not necessarily, he understood, to increase the revenue from the imposition of ad valorem dues. The Board would make the rate on a sliding scale, and in some cases, such as gold, etc., exemptions would be made. The object of the Board was to provide greater facilities for collecting the revenue than existed at present. Mr Fish gave what the future financial position of the Board would be, according to his scheme, as follows: —

GENERAL FINANCIAL POSITION. Fixed Expenditbrb, 1882. £ s.d. Interest on loans .. .. .. 20,691 0. 0 Sinking fund on £250,000 .. • • 2,500 0 0 Sinking fund and interest at 7 per cent. on amount of loan paid off .. .. 857 0 0 Office and collection of dues .. 1,100 0 0 Harbor Department .. .. •• 3,60 O 0 Miscellaneous .. .. •• 876 0 0 Total .. ..£29,126 0.0 Revenue for 1882. £ s. d. £ 8. d. Dues « .. •• 12,000 0 0 Rents .. .. •• 6,000 0 0 Pilotage, port charges, and licenses .. .. 6,300 0 0 Leaving a deficiency .. .. £6,826 0 0 Amount to credit of revenue from works .. .. •• •• 7,831 0 0 Leaving credit surplus lor 1882 of £I,OOB 0 0 Aktiotated Position for 1883. Expenditure as for 1882 .. Revenue for 1883. £ 8. d. Surplus from 1882, as abovo.. .. .. 1,008 0 0 Fixed revenue, as above, for 1882 .. ..22,300 0 0 Anticipated additional revenue— Differential dues at Port Chalmers .. .. 3,400 0 0 Alterations of regulations, by which all exports will be charged Is 6a per ton 2,500 0 0 •Anticipated rents to bo received from lands at present occupied by railway 2,800 0 0 Leaving a credit surplus .. £2,882 0 0 Anticipated Position for 1884. Expenditure as for 1882-3 .. ..£29,126 0 0 Revenue for 1884. £ s. d. Receipts as during 1883 ..31,000 0 0 Additional rents from wharves and quays reserve .. .. •• 1,000 0 0 Additional rent from sections already lea.-ed, which will be increased when railway station is removed .. ~ 650 0 0 Additional sections not at present leased, but which will be available when station is removed 1,000 0 0 Sections on Anderson Bay road .. .. •• 60 0.0 - 83,700 0 0 Leaving a credit surplus of .. £4,574 0 0 Summary of Position as at and for Year 1885. £ s. d. Expenditure ai for IPB2-3 and 1884 .. 29,126 0 0 Interest on new £150,000 loan for 1883-4 and 1885 27,000 0 0 £66,126 0 0 Revenue for 1885. £ s. d. Receipts as during 1884.. 33,700 0 0 Revenue from lands reclaimed by expenditure of £150,000 loan .. 13,420 0 0 Average interest for 1883-4 and 1885 upon unexpended portion of £lso,ooo—say upon £OO,OOO at 5 per cent. 12,000 0 0 Revenue from part of proposed new rec’amation under £150,000 loan, which will accrue during progress of work 5,000 0 0 1 63,120 0 0

Leaving a credit surplus of .. £6,994 0 0 Assuming the works would take two and a-half years to complete, they might fairly say that an average of LBO,OOO would be lying to the Board’s credit during the whole of that period. It might also be reasonably expected, if the money market was at all tight, that the bankers would allow 6 per cent, interest, that being what they paid on their debentures. A similar arrangement bai been made with the City Council by the Bank of New Zealand when that body completed its large loan somo years ago. To be on the safe side he had calculated upon only getting 5 per cent., which on LBO,OOO for two and a-half years would amount to L 12,000. In conclusion, Mr Fish said that as he had stated before he did not think there was any reason to be alarmed at the future position of the Board. Possibly things might not take place at the exact time they were expected to, but the events he had foreshadowed would come to pass in such a time as would make everything turn out right. With regard to what had been said about the present Board lime after time, he thought he might reply that they had as much common sense and ability as previous Boards. So far as intention to do right was concerned—attention to the duties of their office—the present Board compared favorably with their predecessors. They did not say there had not been mistakes in the past, but they did say they were not responsible for them. They had to deal with an heritage, which they had to make the best of. He Believed that in the future the position of the Board, assuming that they obtained borrowing powers, would be very much happier than in the past. They must remember that Mr Simpson, in his original report, never spoke of the expensive reduction at the bar —what did they call it—the Lower Harbor. Mr Mill : The hen that lays the golden egg. —(Laughter.) Mr Fish continued that in his opinion the Board had nothing to fear in the outlook for the future. The statements he hod made—albeit, expressed perhaps in crude language —were, he believed, Based upon a sound foundation, and he should be only too glad to hear and assist any member of the Board

or the general public to make corrections if needed in the details of the figures. At the conclusion of Mr Fish’s address, Mr Mill commenced to speak in reply, but it was, however, decided that further discussion upon the matter should be deferred for a week, to enable the members of the Board to consider the recommendations more fully.