GUARDIANS OF THE COAST.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 216, 11 September 1908, Page 7

GUARDIANS OF THE COAST.

UPKEEP OF LIGHTHOUSES

There are now 38 lighthouses to give warning to mariners of their approach to the New Zealand Coast, and to guard the entrances to its >. harbors. Their maintenance last year cost, m all, the sum of £16,007 17s 4d. The salaries of the attendants amounted to £9339 Is. while stores and contingencies entailed an expenditure of £4930 18s. Only two of the lighthouses, those at Napier Bluff and-Hokitika, burn gas, and their bill for illummant power was but small* £21 12s lid for the couple. The other 36 consumed between them 23,574 gallons of oil, at a cost of £1716 5s 7dv. The biggest oil bill was incurred in the case of the Stephens Island light, which consumed 1616 gallons at a, cost of £117 16s ; Bd. Cuvier Island came next with a demand for 1392 gallons, costing £101 10s, and Kaburangi Point was third with 1093 gallons, and a bill for £79 14s. The Pencarrow Head light cost in all £392 18s 8d to maintain, £250 9s lOd of this going for salaries, £99 11s 4d for stores and contingencies, and £42 17s Gd for the 588 gallons of oil consumed. The maintenance of the Somes Island light ran into £268 8s 7d, £162 5s 6d being for salarieSj £59 15s 7d for stores and contingencies and £46 7s 6d for the 636 gallons of oil burnt. The Cape Palliser light cost* £438 7s to keep going, that at the Brothers accounted for £610 16s Id, and the one at Farewell Spit required an expenditure of, £515 4s lOd. The cost of erection of. some of the principal lighthouses was as follows ■ :■ — Pencarrow Head, .£6422 0s 4d; Dog Island, £10,480 12s Bdj Farewrell Spit, £6139 11s 8d; ■Brothers, £6241 Puysegur Point, £9958 19s sd> Stephens Island, £9349 9s lid ; Cape Palliser, £6243 16s Id.