ENGINEER'S STATEMENT.

Northern Advocate, 7 August 1919, Page 3

ENGINEER'S STATEMENT.

FULLY EXPLANATORY

TRADE, SHIPPING, REVENUE

Having explained the .plans placed on the walls of the chamber, respecting the harbour district (railways, road routes, etc); Mr Blair Mason's plans covering the suggested improvements, and those illustrating the Board's endowments on various parts of the harbour shores, Mr W. Praser (engineer to the board) submitted the following comprehensive statement:—

(1) Whangarei Harbour, one of the finest in New Zealand, is by Act of Parliament vested in a local board, and under ordinary conditions should be regarded by the inhabitants of the town and the ratepayers of the district within a radius of 40 miles, as their most valuable asset.

(2) Although we possess such a very fine harbour, however, we find that the shipping facilities are most expensive, inadequate, and inaccessible, that the freights are unreasonably high, and the passenger service 30 years behind the times.

(3) We find the shipping entered and cleared at the Port during 1917 to hav e been 398,565*t0n5. As a comparison it is reported that for the same period the shipping a* Westport totalled 373,179 tons; but while Whangarei received less than

£3000 in revenue, Westport's shipping returned the board £73.063; showing that Westport, with 25,000 tons less shipping than Whangarei received 24 times the revenue.

(4a) Whangarei receives no revenue by way of wharfage from the great bulk of the shipping, owing to the principal wharves being controlled by th e Government and by private companies.

(4b) The district boasts of having one of the best-paying sections of railway in the Dominion, viz., that between Hikurangi and Whangarei, yet although it returns the depart-

ment such a handsome revenue, the goods carried over thfe line go out of the harbour free, and return practically no revenue to the district.

(4c) Harbour Endowments. —The reclaimable mud-flats now vested in the board include areas comprising 32 acres above the town wharf, 973 acres between the town and Kioreroa 1122 acres between Kioreroa and Limestone Island, and under the provisions of the proposed Enabling Bill a further area of 3228 acres below Limestone Island will become the property of the board. The great benefit the district would derive from th c reclamation of these valuable'areas can. be imagined, but bo long,as the board occupy such an anomalous position with regard to control and revenue, these vast areas must remain unproductive.

(5) The Harbour Board, with less than £3000 a year, is called upon to keep a permanent staff, including a pilot, a secretary, a wharfinger, a collector, a harbourmaster with two men, and part time of an engineer. Thirteen wharves and jettias, stockshipping yards, dipping bath, five sheds, three acetone-lighted beacons, and eighty-nine buoys and beacons have to be maintained and renewed, besides many other works of a minor character.

(6) Following are the freights ruling at the present tim e between Auckland and the following places:—

Per ton. a d, Marsden Point .. ~ 23 0 Mangapai . .. ~ 24 6 Whangarei Town Wharf .. 17 6 Onerahi . . . . .. 18 0 Whangarei, via Onerahi, rail 22 6

Butte r costs," 40s per ton from

Onerahi

In 1912 freightage to the town wharf was 8s 6d per ton.

The increase in freightage on the town wharf trade alone, calculated on last year's cargo, amounts to approximately £7000 a year, and the total cost of goods carried between Auckland and the town wharf at the present high rates, with Auckland wharfage added, amounts to about £15,000 a year.

It may b e mentioned that the freight from Onehunga to Nelson is 22s 6d per ton, and from Auckland to Wellington 20s 6d per ton.