PATEA HARBOUR BOARD.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 2 May 1922, Page 4

PATEA HARBOUR BOARD.

MONTHLY MEETING

The monthly meeting of the Patea Harbour Board was i_eid at Patea yesterday, when there were present: Messrs Christensen (chair), Grainger Walker, Pearce, Pacey and Verry. An apology for absence was received from Mr J.. R. Corrigan. I On the motion of Messrs Grainger I and Walker, Mr Christensen was reappointed chairman. Mr Christensen thanked the members for the confidence. Mr Grainger was elected deputy chairman. A small committee was appointed to go into the matter of the advisability of erecting sheath filling at the lower end of the grader wharf, where the Idredge had, been working, and to report at the next meeting of the Board. It was decided to apply for a bank overdraft of £3000 for the current year.

A letter was received from the Railway .Department stating that the waterside workers' shed must be removed from its present site. A site could be leased from the Department for £1 per annum, and it would be necessary to pay £1 for the preparation of the deeds. The chairman referred to the letter in a most sarcastic manner, and said that the Board had been subjected to a lot of "pin-pricking" by the Department in connection with this matter, and also in connection with j a demand by the Department for rent I "for a bit of stick (the beacon), | wTnch stood on the railway property. ' The chairman mentioned that postage | charges, etc., on correspondence be- I tween the Department and the Board must have run into a fair sum of money by now.—The letter was received, i HARBOURMASTER'S REPORT. Capt. Wm. Tinney reported that the ! channel over the bar was straight, with a depth of about Bft. 6in. at neap tides and about 12ft 6in at high water spring tides. There was about 180 ft between the walls. He sounded the bar yesterday morning, and got 9ft fiin between the walls and lift 6in outside, with 6ft 9in on the gauge. This was considered good. The past, month had been a very poor one as. far as shipping was concerned, there having been only seven arrivals and eight departures \ since the last board mee.iug. The Kapuni and the Waverley arrived on April 16, and owing to the heavy weather did not leave again until the 26th. The river was keeping good, but was still very shallow at the wharf. DREDGEMASTER'S REPORT. The dredgemaster (S. Hodge) reported, inter alia, that since the iast meeting of the board the dredge had been snagging at the top end of the railway whai-f and; dredging along the lower end of. the grader wharf berthage. While dredging near the grader wharf

a number of large snags had been lifted, which apparently were buried in the silt. r The dredge had been idle during, the holidays, but during that time repairs had been carried out.