BULK OIL STORAGE.

Evening Star, Issue 23100, 28 October 1938, Page 8

BULK OIL STORAGE.

From last night’s Harbour Board discussion on bulk oil storage, involving the question of erecting a new wharf, it can be gathered that the board is in need of the expert advice which several members-suggested it should obtain. The objections to the present site of the storage installations are obvious enough, for, apart altogether from the possibly remote menace of attack from the air, the area in use is not sufficiently extensive to cope with future development. Futhermore, the building of new wharf accommodation will ultimately have to be faced. In the meantime the board has adopted the report of the sub-committee which made recommendations concerning sites for extensions of certain oil companies’ installations and one which urged that the City Council should take steps under the Municipal Corporations Act to have the board’s lands between the city and Black Jack’s Point included ■within Dunedin’s boundaries. In the light of the broader issues at stake it may be expected that the difficulties raised through the respective attitudes of the City Council and the West Harbour Borough Council will be satisfactorily removed by negotiation. The salient feature of the position ;s that further extensions on the present site for oil storage are not considered desirable and that some provision will have to be made for expansion. Ah initial problem is raised by the fact that certain oil companies urgently require additional facilities and probably cannot wait until a new berth is built.

The only logical interim solution, therefore, lies in the direction of building on or near the existing area until new accommodation is provided.' The board and other interested bodies cannot afford to rush into a new scheme without the advice of an expert, an overseas man for preference. In Europe and South Africa war risks have been taken into consideration in the planning of petrol tanks, and, that being so, many fresh ideas, notably underground storage reservoirs, have taken shape. If Dunedin’s tanks are removed as far as possible from residential areas it may not be considered necessary to incur the expense of a big borrowing policy, but it is at least incumbent on the local authorities to call on the services of an outside adviser thoroughly well versed in developments since the menace of war became a widespread human preoccupation. Apart from the question of defence precautions the Harbour Board members are not of one mind about the complete suitability of Black Jack’s Point as a new site, Mr Tyson touching on the point that in a few years exactly the same objections to it might be raised as are now being raised against the present site. This appears to be a logical argument, and is one of several reasons why a more experienced opinion than is available in Dunedin should be obtained.