HARBOR BOARD.

Evening Star, Issue 8409, 9 January 1891, Page 2

HARBOR BOARD.

The regular meeting, held yesterday, we« attended by the Chairman (Mr A. H. Rosa), Mr H. Gourley, Mr W. Barclay, Mr J. Carroll, Mr O. M. Barr, Mr E. B. Cargill, Mr A. Thomson, Mr J. T. Mackerras, Mr E. G. Allen, and Mr W. DaWstth, M.H.R.

The bank book laid on the tebl'e showed a debit tfclhtrte of 1,7,598 4d.

‘TREAStrfcl&’g A'ffrio'CNm /The following meihp, was submitted by Mr J. L. Gtlrtes, treasurer have the honor to present to you copies of the State (pant of receipts, expenditure, ana -balancesheet for ,tbe year, ending 31st December, 1890, together with statements 'oJ assets and liabilities, .conversion aoopnnt-, debenture purchase account, loan accounts, and particulate of 5 per cent. Consol booth, issued and unissued to lsj> November, 1890, the date of last London advioes, as forwarded by me ,tq the. Controller and Auditor-General .on the 3rd ihst. I also attach sundry returns, and others are .in preparation, that I trust will be of service to members of the Board and to the general public, illustrative ol the; Board’s business. It will he,noted that in ithe assets I have uot filled in any valuation of the .Boards property in plant, buildings, wharves, sheds, (andeu endowments, etc., as the doing so would be a .mere matter of opinion, and, no doubt, would be variously estimated by different individuals. - As soon as the accounts are audited and certified to by the Controller and Auditor-Gene-ral, I will have pleasure in presenting then in a complete form tor passing by the, Board. According to statute, a meeting of the Board requires to be held on the. third Monday of January, at noon, to receive the audited-accounts; but, as’it is improvable that they can be audited by that time, it is 'competent, under the provisions ol the Act, to adjourn the meeting to any future date, if the meeting is formally held, it might be adjourned till the date of the next ordinary meeting, and thereafter from meeting to meeting until the audited accounts are received.

Attached to the memo, was a statement of receipts and expenditure and balance-sheet of the Board for the year ended 91st December, 1890. hj In the gyn'otfj hcoouDt the principal items under the £ece;pto heading were Pilotage, L 4,120; port Charges* L 3.301; dues and berthage, L 24,391; towage, L 3,793; rents, L 7,721; hire ol dredge, L 5,500: refund from sinking fund account, L 4,500; the total receipts being L 71.248 6s sd. The leading items on the other side are Pilot service, L 1,649 ; tug service, L 2.417; Dredge 222. L 1,278; Vulcan, L 2.261; lona, L 1,159; walling works at North Heads, LI,886; amounts transferred to interest account, L 36,602, and to sinking fund account, L 4.867; the total expenditure being L 60.848, leaving a balance of L 10,400 6a 6d. The balances, etc., are as follow £ s. d.

By the statement of assets am ■ ties it appears that the floating debt of the <. -t the present time is L 686,700. The Board ha i laht to borrow up to L 699.000 to carry out the <ion of their 6 peir cents into 5 per ceuts. The Chairman said tl - reasuret was to be congratulated ' having the accounts ready so promptly. -*e (Mr Ross) did not remember, from hi., experience of ten years coming next Febi ■ y, any previous year in which the n"nts were in the hands of members at -’-eh an early period as they were this y; As he (Mr Ross) had only had a cop} the accounts put into his hands at tl pening of the present meeting, he was i o to comment upon them. It would be -ced that there was a falling off of L 2,2 8: 1 >es and berthage as compared with . year, but that was not to be wondered . cause last year there was an abnormal • ; use of about L 7,000. Towage return « also leas than last year, and the expei ! .e was Ll5O in excess. In regard tc ues, again the expenditure was great nan the amount received from them, i 1 year he had the pleasure of calling at ■ to the fact that that was the first t which they bad paid expenses, ana i. orry to see that they had not conti so. Bethought, howeverj that on a the members had no reason issatisfied wUh

the Board’s posi as shown by the accounts. Of 1! B there was a, debit balance, b *is was because of certain works w’ were deemed indispensable, and tbei no reason to believe that the expendb or the current year would be on ant , like so extensive a scale as that of 1 car. He should have liked to have b aether opportunity of referring to t accounts ; but, as the members « probably aware, he was leaving ■ district, and before next meeting resignation would be in the hj&, of the Government. He would fur: ;mark, in reference to the expenditur the statement showed that L 6,876 hj m spent on the Lower Harbor, and L. >n the Upper Harbor for the year, maki’ : total of L 10,593. This was not all extr uary expenditure; a considerable port 1 ' ’tat sum would have been expended eve> , ere had been no special work underta The tug service accounts showed a very tisfactory balance (L 1,364), and the stater «nt as to the loan indebtedness showed tl t the treasurer’s conversion scheme, althor i looked on by some with distrust at tht time it was proposed, had been a great e ocess, there being at the present time a laving of L 1,200 or L 1.300 a year to the 80. rd. T! s by-laws. A letter was i eived from the Minister of Marine, dated *4 f h December, acknowledging receipt nf ’ y-laws made by the Board on the 1 The following letter was also read;— Marine Lv it, Wellington, l .h Deoenber, 1800.

Tbe Chairman Otago Harc>. Sir,—With reference to tin- ter’s letter of this date, acknowledging the reoeij he by-laws made by your Board on the 13th ult., '6 the honor, by bis direction, to state that he r . ;ts that the Board has not seen its way to carry ou ' .e promise, made by it in 1888, to omit the clause, o ije to by this department, and that, under th .nromnstances, he will have to advise His Exoellf the Governor to exercise the power of disallowan -aspect to these clauses.—l have, eta, Ir ( Wilson, , i -Secretary.

The Chairman said Undersecretary seemed to be qui in regard to tbe matter. The faev that the recommendations of the C loner of Customs were carried out a . and the portions relating to signals 1 ‘ placed at the back of the par ;.i ■ But there were other by • laws, < , tliv to signals for special local purpose . v) ich the Board had also provided for, ami i - Wilson seemed to be under the impression; bat the Board had not made any alteration o the by-laws as requested. He (Mr Rot. hid an interview with the Minister yt rflay, and he sent off a telegram the Premier, to which an answer wi expected, explaining how the matter rod. There was evidently a misunderstuo !; ng about the matter. FINANCE COMMITTEE’S REPORT. The Finance Committee reported tha< treasurer has repeatedly applied to Mr ’ for bis overdue rent, but has fail ; ■ obtain any satisfactory reply. Messrs and Co.’s application for a rebate of du bales of fibre, being vUra vim of the rtgi. lations, has been declined.

INSPECTOR’S REPORT.

Mr D. G. Stephens, inspector of work forwarded the following summary of wori performed for the year;—

North Head mole.—Having early in January received authority to resume work upon)the motel employed some men at the quarry, and on the 24th February commenced to tip stone towards the outer end of the staging. Work was continued till July 3, when it was stopped on account of the suitable material being exhausted. The stone had been showing well up to low water, but on the 26th June a heavy sea reduced the level at the outer end, sending the loose stone to the northward of the line of the staging, but since that time I cannot see that any of the stones have been shifted. The quantity of stone sent cut between the above dates was 18,613 cubic yards, bringing up the total quantity of stone in the mole to 801,828 cubic (yards. The top level of the mole is not nearly sufficiently high to secure the maximum scour, but even in its unfinished state the results ate all that could be desired, as the soundings on the bar during the year have ranged from 24ft to 24ft 10in at low water zero on the north spit tide gauge, which is 91n lower than the other standard tide gauges. I think we may therefore conclude that the once troublesome bar is practically gone. Dredging Upper Harbor, —On the 4th January the dredge Vulcan commenced work In the steamer's basin from the end of R shed upwards, at which place there was only 12ft at low water. The spoil was discharged by the ten-ton crane and derrick No. 4. On January 16 the dredge was removed to the lower end of the Victoria Channel, where the ruling depth was only a llltlo over 12ft. Here she mode a out 100 ft wide, by a depth of 16ft at low water, through sham clean sand. The material was deposited partly behind Kilgour Point wall by means of the floating derricks, but principally within the reclamation area to the south-west side of Jetty street wbaif. On the 3rd February she came up to pile 7, and wrought downwards te gear pile 10, The spoil

folab oancl) was deposited by the floatinc derricks behind the Baveiubounie wall, and spread by manual labor. It was intended to do some dredging near the junction ol the Victoria and Kattray street wharves, and the Vulcan had only got started to it when she had to be transletred W the Lower Harbor, and this work atßlSeihalnsttnattended 10. I hare not had any lodadlhga in. the Victoria Channel tor ftouta tirhe, but, judgihg by the draught ol VeSseft homing through it, thhre bauntit bh union Itewer^Harbon—^ 3>a the Z3rd oil Ajufll the Vuioap Wall taken to the Lower Harbor to remove a shallow Sill la the ehabpel near the ,Kaik jetty. , This took hf ay in a few hours v .She was. then put on the point of the eandspit', which bad advanced so far .towards Barrington Pplnt a* to render the navigation of the channel at this place somewhat risky. On the ißth of June she commenced to out through the line of the new. channel to euohra depth os her ladder would reach. The Dredge 222, arriving from Melbourne on the 22nd September, was put in working order, and took up the Vulcan’s work in the new channel on October 8, and has just get through the cut at date, and was brought back ibis morning to go over a place that had shallowed up. to about 19ft. Bin. Prom my souodinge book you will observe that there is very little distance to go over.. The work of dredging this channel has been attended with various difficulties The material was bad to work with, the tides were very strong, and the weather for the greater part of the time was exceedingly coarse. The new channel has a very great advantage over the old one, inasmuch as the line of navigationiis comparatively straight, and its distance from Harrington Point makes it absolutely safe tor the long steamers. Wharves, sheds, etc.—During the year the wharves, sheds, beacons, channel piles, etc., have been kept in order as occasion required. The following is the extent of the wharfage andebed accommodation at the present time;--Rattray street wharf 1,658(t, Victoria whar 1 848 ft, cross wharf 620 ft, Jetty street wharf 1,190 ft, tongue wharf 871 it, Stuart street wharf 220tc; total, 6,332 lineal feet. There are in all twelve sheds, with a total floor area equal to 16,860 superficial feet. This report was referred to the Reserved Committee. THE RAVENSBODRNE RECLAMATION, la reference to this matter the following memorandum was, received and referred to the Reserves Committee i Wellington, December 30,1890. The Chairman Otago Harbor Board. Sir,—The Engineer of Working Railways having duly laid the matter before the New Zealand Railway Commissioners, I am directed by them to say that they do uot see their way to agree to the plan prepared by Mr O’Connor, and must abide by the amended one. LEAVE OF ABSENCE. Mr W. Dawson, M.H.R., was granted leave of absence, in order to permit of his attendance at Wellington daring the session. THE CHAIRMAN’S RETIREMENT,

Mr Mackerras said that before the Board went into committee he wished to say that he thought they should take some notice of the chairman’s resignation prior to his departure for the North. He (Mr Mackerras) was sure that every member of the Board would feel great regret at losing the services of Mr Ross. Daring the time that Mr Ross had Held the position of chairman he had discharged the important duties of the office to the satisfaction of all conberned. He had bestowed an enormous amount of time and attention to the interests of the Board, and not only so but, in conducting the proper business of the Board, he had always been courteous, giving a hearing to the opinions submitted by members, and sometimes in troublous periods he* by bis tact, threw oil on the troubled waters and brought the members into harmony again. He (Mr Mackerras) thought it was only right that there should be placed on the hooka of the Board a record of their high appreciation of his services, and begged to propose that Mr Cargill and Mr Barclay be appointed a sub-com-mittee to prepare a suitable letter for presentation to Mr Ross.

Mr Dawson seconded the motion, and in doing so would say that during the time he bad been a member of the Harbor Board he bad noticed that Mr Rosa had given every care and attention to the duties of the office he held. For his (Mr Dawson’s) part he thought that the amount of work devolving on the chairman of the Board was so great that he ought to be paid for his services. From what he had been told, the duties were pretty nearly equal to those of the Mayor of the City, and he thought that power should be obtained to pay the chairman a salary. The Board were in the highest degree satisfied with the way in which Mr Ross had filled the office, and, as Mr Mackerras had said, Mr Ross was always courteous and affable towards all the members,

Mr Carglll had heard with great regret of Mr Ross’s intention to leave. He had given a great amount of time to the discharge of his duties, and had filled the office not only with dignity and propriety, but also with a great deal of ability. He (Mr Cargill) had great pleasure in supporting the motion.

Mr Carroll also testified to the ability with which Mr Ross had discharged the duties of the chairmanship, though he (Mr Carroll) had never expected anything else than that Mr Ross would be a first-class man. He (Mr Carroll) was entirely in accord with the proposition, and thought with Mr Dawson that the chairman should be paid for his services. Mr Ross said that he was obliged to the members for the flattering terms in which they had referred to him. It was not without a pang of regret that he severed his connection with this district. It was thirtyone years next month since he landed in Dunedin, and with the exception of the first twelve months he had never been out of harness, having always held some office, as chairman of road boards, chairman of school committees, president of institutes, and member of City Council and the Harbor Board. His recollection of the Harbor Board had been of the most pleasant character since the commencement. It was ten years ago next February since he was first elected to it by the City Council, and for eight years he had represented the Government. For more than half that time he had occupied the position of chairman by the unanimous vote of the Board, for whenever any other gentleman wished to have the position he (Mr Ross) had never entered into competition with him. He felt very much flattered by the way in which his services had been spoken of, and might say that he could not charge himself with having done anything during his term of office but what he deemed to be necessary in his discharge of public duty. If in doing this he had unwittingly said anything to offend the feelings of any member of the Board, he must express his regret, but he hoped that the very friendly manner in which the members had spoken showed that there was no feeling but that of friendship existing between every member and himself.—(Hear, hear.) The motion was carried nem. con,, and the Board then went into committee,

General account, Cr .. Conversion cash payment, Cr.. .. 10,400 5 6 209 5 7 Interest account, No. X 15 0 0 »v go. 2 150 0 0 No. 8 37 10 0 No. 4 Sinking fund Cr 32 10 0 81 11 2 Colonial Bank-, London, special, i 1,578 11 11 : -.504 17 2 Coupon account 235 0 0 Debenture purchase account.. 1,578 14 11 Colonial Bank of New Zealand. account, Cr 18,2(53 10 2 Dr Bank, Dunedin .. 7,781 13 6 £12,804 17 2