The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1933. PORT OF OAMARU.

Evening Star, Issue 21515, 13 September 1933, Page 8

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1933. PORT OF OAMARU.

Oamaru Harbour may be described as an area of about sixty acres enclosed between a breakwater and a mole. The natural advantages to begin with were a minimum, being no more than an angular bend in the coast line giving a certain amount of shelter from the prevailing southerly weather. Among the two dozen ports of New Zealand it is one of the sixteen which cannot bo classed as major or modern ports, but it aspires to a better position. It is only under favourable conditions, principally as to dranght, that oversea vessels call there, though the number visiting it tends to be on the increase. In 1932 the overseas vessels working the port totalled thirty-seven, aggregating 95,845 tons and handling about 5,000 tons of cargo. However, recently three oversea vessels which would have berthed at Oamaru had draught permitted passed the port, and the Harbour Board is now considering the problem whether its position warrants such an expenditure on improvements as will obviate such passing by. The attitude is one typical of many of the smaller ports of the dominion. Admittedly from the' broad point of view there are far too many of these. Before New Zealand was railroaded to anything like the present extent, these small ports had a natural birth, but economically the necessity for them has passed. Farmers and business people of the district have allowed local considerations to exclude reconsideration of that centralisation which, is now practicable, which the Home shipping companies are so desirous of, and which would permit of some reduction in the marketing costs of our exports. However, there seems little likelihood of Oamaru or any of the minor ports voluntarily falling out of competition for visits from oversea vessels, although their perseverance may entail a growing expenditure and the handing down of an embarrassing burden to posterity. From Mr Furkert, who has lately retired from the position of Public Works Engineer in Chief, the board has obtained a preliminary report ns to tho possibility of safe access for vessels drawing 22ft. In brief he recommends an extension of the existing breakwater, though not along its present line. From a point near its outer end this extension would run seawards in a north-easterly direction, and the approach to the harbour entrance would be almost parallel with the new structure, a certain amount of dredging being necessary for improvement and maintenance of depth. The estimate of the cost is about £IOO,OOO, and apparently it might have been less had suitable stone been available from the Oamaru Harbour Board’s or from other local quarries that might bo acquired. The material in the new wing of tho breakwater is evidently an important point, for it would directly front and oppose tho seas raised by the prevailing winds, whereas the present breakwater, being almost parallel with tho prevailing set of the seas, has not such an onerous duty imposed on it. Possibly recourse may have to be had to concrete blocks in

sizes up to several tons for the upper part of the new structure. AVe presume that the question before the Oamaru Board is mainly financial—whether the district can face the prospect of a debt increase of £IOO,OOO. Early in this century Oamaru Harbour had acute financial difficulties, and its board had (with Parliament’s sanction) to make arrangements with its bondholders. From statistics which have not been brought further up to datf than 1930 it appears that the total loan expenditure on Oamaru Harbour has aggregated £300,000, while the existing loan indebtedness is £215,000, which is held in Australia and matures in 1950-54. The annual loan charges total about £II,OOO, and almost all of this is met by a harbour rate, for out of the board’s total annual revenue of about £20.000 some £IO,OOO is furnished by the ratepayers, which doubtless is responsible for the familiar saying that the harbour keeps the district poor. It is, however, for the Oamaru, people themselves to say whether the prospective gain from more frequent visits of oversea vessels is inducement enough for increasing loan indebtedness by about 50 per cent. There is also the question of maintenance, especially the dredging that may he involved. It is a most hazardous thing to predict the effects on depths due to erecting a breakwater athwart the line of the prevailing weather. At present the board’s dredging costs appear to vary between £3,000 and £7,000 a year, and it is the case with many harbour authorities that, apart from local conditions, this item is always liable to increase unless shipbuilding design agrees to call a halt in tho size and draught of new vessels. There are, however, some faint indications that there may bo a halt in the tendency to go on increasing these. Beyond a certain tonnage tho largest vessel may by no means bo the most economical or the best profit-earner.