HOKIANGA HARBOUR

Northern Advocate, 13 June 1931, Page 2

HOKIANGA HARBOUR

ABOLITION OF SIGNALLING. DISASTER FEARED. STRONG PROTEST^. (Special to "Northern Advocate.") AUCKLAND, This Day. Criticism of the proposals to remove the harbourmaster and abolish the signalling services at Hokianga is made by firms and associations interested in Auckland.

Captain B. Burke, secretary of the Auckland Merchant Service Guild, has sent the following telegram to the Minister of Marine, the Hon. J. B, Donald; —

"The Auckland Merchant Service Guild makes emphatic protest against the withdrawal of the harbourmaster at Hokianga, The Hokianga bar is considered by piasters to be the most dangerous in New Zealand, and requires constant supervision by a competent man in order to be negotiated .with any confidence. No consideration of economy • can justify action which may result • in the sacrificing of seamen’s lives. Your Government will be held responsible for any disaster which may occur.

‘ ‘ The department simply does not realise the seriousness of its action from the point of view of the navigator,” continued Captain Burke. “I have had ten years* experience of that bar, and every master endorses, what I have said. There are no beacons to take a ship in, 1 and in any dase there is no place to, put them* The channel changes so quickly with the wind that, in the past, masters have had to rely on the signalling staff. And now the Government, owing to the necessity for economy in Government ex-, genditure, has taken away the serv. ice.

“If a ship has. to go fhere with signalling facilities lacking, it would just' have to wait outside until the weather became suitable. With the exception in recent years of the Joseph Craig, which was lost as the result of the parting 'of a towline in 3.914, and the Isabella* de Praine in 3928, there have beep no accidents on that bar. But that was when a harbourmaster was in charge. There is no tolling what will happen with no master there to guide the mariners.” “The official who ordered that should be sentenced to cross .the Holdanga bar,twice a week for the rest of his life,” was the personal comment of Mr T. P. Andorspn, secretary of. the Seamen ’s Union. He algo sent a wire to the Minister of Marine in the same strain as that of the Merchant Guild- It reads: ‘‘You cannot expect to escape personal responsibility if disaster occurs on the notoriously dangerous Hokianga bar through the discontinuation of an essential signal service. Such economy amounts -to juggling with seamen’s lives.”

Yet another telegram makes reference, to the danger to seamen’s lives. The message to the Minister of Marine 'from the firm of Messrs A. G. Prankham says: , “We understand that the harbourmaster is being removed from Bfokianga and, that no certified officer is being appointed in his place. If this is correct, we enter an emphatic protest. Our opinion is that the Hokianga. bar is one of the most dangerous in New Zealand requires a competent certificated man in charge, as the position of the bar is constantly changing. Your department’s contemplated action is a distinct menace to the lives of men on ships forking Hokianga/ ’ In the past five years, remarked Mr A. G. Prankham, the bar had shifted six miles to the north, and even in the past, two weeks the sand, had shifted considerably. If no officer was to be there it would be a tremendous responsibility on the master of the ship.