HARBOR RETRENCHMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 7181, 7 April 1887, Page 3

HARBOR RETRENCHMENT.

TO THB itIUTOR.

Sir, —Our hnbor-master’s staff is now composed of the following :-The Harbor master (salary, L 400). two deputy harbor-masters (joint salaries, LOGO, of which the railway pays L 150), one pilot at the Hoads, with boat’s cr.,w (the aggregate salaries. This pilot is seldom used, because, when a voisel is signalled, the tug tenders with a pilot. Then wo have three pilots in Port Chalmers besides the captain of the tue, which represents a sa'ary list of LI, 140. Then we have the boatswain on the wharf in Dunedin (salary, LISC), boatswain at Port Chalmers (L 108), giving n grand total of L 3.076, less Ll5O paid by the railway, as before mentioned. The Harbor-master has stated that no reduction can bo made. Let us see. I think wc ought to do away with tho pilot at the Heads and his boat’s crew as being unnecessary. Then a pilot should be put in charge of the tug, and in his spare time he could look after all buoys beacons, etc,, as the pilot does in Lyttelton, at a salary of L 250. Another pilot should bo stationed on the wharf to attend to berthing, etc., and to tako charge of second tug if required, and his salary should bo L 250. A boatswain on the wharf to clejn and paint tho buoys and attend to berthing, etc., as he does now, might be obtained for L 120; a boatswain at Dunedin wharf for Ll2O. The Harbormaster, who would make himself generally useful, should be paid L2GO; but a deputy harbor-master is wholly unnecessary. I find the total amount of salaries, to give effect to my plan, would bo LI,OOO. Without impairing the efficiency of the staff tho Board might thus save Ll, t>2o per annum. Now the question arises: Can the towage and tho pilotage be reduced? I quite agree with Mr Ross that if they are reduced not one ton more of shipping will be brought to our port. But that says nothing for future freights. By various calculations, based on absolute facts, it costs a ship 3s 6d per ton more to discharge in Dunedin than it does in Port Chalmers. And for what? To put 9d per ton • into the pockets of tho importers, which the consumer does not feel the good of. —I am, etc., Thomas H. Hodgk. Dunedin, April 2.