HARBOR BOARD.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 5318, 13 October 1885, Page 2

HARBOR BOARD.

A meeting ofphe Harbor Board was held last evenihgat the office of the board. Present — Messrs Kennedy (chairman), Sheedy, Guinness, Kerr, Thomas, M'Lean, Lahman. , ,1 ,'-'... The minutes of the previous meeting were lvad and confirmed. „,..-, The Engineer's 1 report, was read as follows i— '"7..' I have the' honor. to submit my report for the past fortnight as follows : — "Contract No. I.' . • • \ "The work under this contract continues to progress very slowly. The quantity of stone delivered during the fortnight was 1735 tons against 1662 tons theprevio s fortnight, making a total of 3397 tons f r the month. Put 884 tons, of this quantity is fourth-class, stone, Avhich is outside the con-ract, thus reducing the quantity of stones delivered under, the contract of 2513 tons, or' little more than one-third of the contract quantity. The total quantity delivered to date is 23,195, but excluding fourth-class stone, only 18,242 tons, which is little more than one-fifth, ff the whole contract. Some very good first-class stones have been go ng into the work lately. " A ve^y heavy south-west sea raged on the 4th and sth instant; It was probably the heaviest that has been seen since the Board commence'? operations. The works sfood the test well, and suffered no damage. A small mine :was fired in the' upper quarry on Saturday evening, which has brought down some very good large stone ; .■;.;. "Contract No. 4. "Although the contract time for completing the railway expires on the 14tli inst., very little has been done to the work. The material for the bridge has been delivered, and the piles for the east abutment ; of the bridge have been ; driven ; a drive for a mine has also ■been commenced in the quarry. "Railway on North Side. , The portion of railway which is being (..carried out by day labor is finished as iegards formation. A portion of 'the line was left without stone facing in hopes that the contractors would commence in time, to admit of its being done by them, but it was found that the wash of the sea, in rough weather, was likely to damage the work, and the stone facing was resumed. The weigh bridge and house „are nearly completed, but a siding has yet to be laid into it, and the quarry has. not yet been quite cleaned out. '■ ■ " Dredging. "I reported to the Board on the 19th ultimo, that a bank had formed in: the river, below '' the lagoon entrance, and that several ships had touched upon it in going but. Sanction was obtained to commence dredging, and preparations for doing so were made. Wet weather and floods set in, and no work could be done for a week. On the flood subsiding I examined the bank alone with Captain Turnbull, Harbormaster, and we found it considerably reduced, es- : pecially at the down stream end* Ifc was

then resolved not to dredge as it is proj bable that future freshes will entirely iremove it, and it is not likely to form again after th<&training bank has been farmed. The dreuge hands were employed during ! the week in laying down sidings and shifting cranes, and the dredge has been taken j to the upper end of the wharf, ready to commence work as soon as the flood goes I. down. -~~~ Tr F : Ts"Kmal;F^^ t j four weeks' full working, or say six weeks, allowing for bad weather to complete." The Chairman., said that .there, was . a [ good deal in the r port worthy of consideration, and if the Engineer's reports were not to be passed over altogether, they should give the report their serious consideration in committee. It would be useless, in the Engineer sending in these reports at all if no notice was to be taken of them. He would suggest: that the report be referred to the Works Committee for their consideration.— rMr Lahman said that unless some" satisfactory explanation was made to account for the dilatoriness of the progress made, they should take some steps to remedy this state of things. One thing that struck him was the altogether disproportionate amount .of No. 4 stone.— Mr Kerr-approved of the matter being referred to the Works Committte.' As had been remarked by Mr Lahman, there had been delay in providing the necessary appliances ; as. was stipulated had to be ; . provided, for by: the Board. There were also unforseen acciuents to the machinery that could not. very well be provided against. He believed everything would be satisfactorily explained before the committee, of inquiry.— - Mr Sheedy. also explaine , that « arious unforr seen difficulties had ■ p- evented the contractors- frum keeping ; up to the terms < f their contract. -.As for the quantity of fourth-class .stone, delivered, the quarry turned .out a great deal more than had been anticipated.; but the most of it had been< ■4eUv,<??ed vat Wallabi \ Bay. * He belieV,e&)th&i\ak -new machinery had ■ been ordered] Ipy/ithfc contractors they would be in a .position^in- la week or two t<> push on the work according to the terms of their 'cpfttraqfo-r^The Chairman, after, reviewing ■the! .'remarks of the previous speakers, suggested that in addition to the committee considering the question of the way in which the contractors were carrying out the work, suggested that they should also deal with the question .of dredging, and determine whether it would not be advisable to give the men a month's notice.— Mr Kerr said they had already determined to do away with dredging ; but they found that there was plenty of dredging for them alongside the wharf. Perhaps when that was done they would find other- dredging necessary. They might also find it incumbent on them to again urge on . the Government the nee ssily for dredging the lagoon and the other side 0f ... the. river 10 .enable big steamers to turn at the wharf .—Mr ;Lahman opposed ' xtravagant expenditure in useless dredging. The dredgingiabonir itob^ done..n,ow was ,to his , mind the Imost important work for the' dredge he isaw. As,f or dredging in the _lagoon, J he •;wa's glad -thai; the Government had stepped Jin and put a stop v .to. it; as, -according to Sir Jno'.' "Cbode's plan it 'was one ofiihe last works to be done. He saw enough of the progress of th'o harbor works'generally to show him that it was high time they began toeconomise. — Mr Sheedy defended the work done on the north side of the river as being full value for the money expended, and gave his reasons for the same. The line had not been constructed on the original lines. It had been materially altered. The line was fully a mile long, and it had been raised throughout the whole of that distance. The embankments had also been stone pitched and all the stone had to be broken by hand. None of these things had ,been contemplated in the original estimate. As for the dredging, he believed they would find it necessary to do a great deal more than was at first contemplated. The matter was then referred to tRe Works Committee. (To he continued.)