HARBOUR BUSINESS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 9 June 1927, Page 7

HARBOUR BUSINESS

At the usual monthly' meeting of the Nelson Harbour Hoard held yesterday there'were present: .Messrs 11. R. Duncan (chairman), A. Gould, H. \Y. Kelly, A. Drummoml, F. W. Greensladc, the Hon. VV. YV. .S'nodgrass, M.L.C.. P. 1. Ledger and Captain Moncrieff. Mr 11. .Stephens, who is in Wellington representing the Board at a meeting of the Dominion Employers of Waterside Labour was excused.

FIN A.NCR

The Hoard's Bank current account was at the beginning /of the. month £20.16/10/6 in credit. Receipts for May were as follows: —Pilotages £513/2/1, compared with £443/7/9 for the corresponding month last year; special rates £4l/2/5; rents receivable £47/10/-; wharf receipts £2194/19/7, against £2292/6/1 for May 1926; wharf receipts at Maputi £343/9/-, last year's May figures being £279/4/2. Payments were confirmed amounting to £958/15/11 and accounts were passed for payment totalling £542/4/2.

CORRESPONDENCE

Inward correspondence was dealt with as indicated below :

A letter from the sanitary inspector called the Board's attention to a. nuisance 'caused by lluvdeposit offish offal on the foreshore. This matter had already been .attended to.

The Nelson City; Council asked permission lo deposit" spoil from the cliffs outside Ihe Rocks Road wall and asked that it the Board had any doubts as to the advisability of such proceeding they obtain the opinion of tjhe. Marine Department. The Marine department has been written to, but no reply has been received vet.

HARBOURMASTER'S REPORT

The Harbourmaster (Captain Collins) reported for the month as follows: The trade, of the Port for the period ending 31st .May shows an increase in tonnage compared with the. corresponding month last year. During the, month 90 vessels, including 1 overseas steamer entered and left the Port, including the s.s. Raranga, having a total of 32,076 tons register against' 30,443 tons for May last year. The maintenance and pilot staffs have been fully employed upon various works, which are as follows: Repairs to the under structure of the main wharf; repairing the piling on the inside, of the breastwork wharf; removing a quantity of timber from Mapna. to be stored here ; conveying material from the boulder bank for the purpose, of [Hitting down a. slipway on the foreshore opposite, the Anchor Foundry; and removing a. pile recently damaged at. the, breastwork wharf opposite "G" shed. 1 wish to have authority to erect an additional shed alongside the present motor sheds, for the purpose of making a workshop, in which the mule, ami tractors can be overhauled and repaired. The cost of erecting the. above shed, which will have a concrete floor and sides, will be £35. •With regard to the. fishermen's request that the. Board provide facilities lor the handling of fish in the vicinity of the slops at (he breastwork wharf, I am strongly of opinion that if the above request were granted and this were a. recognised place for the landing of fish, we should have endless trouble from launches occupying the berthage, at the steps when it is required for launches who are obliged to pay a berthage charge, and who would not be able to get, reasonable, access lo the steps if if were occupied by several launches. Both the wharfinger and myself have had trouble in the past with certain fishing launch owners refusing to move their launches when requested to do so, especially at a time when the berthage accommodation -was required for other purposes. I recommend that in view of the above, and if the Board considers it necessary to provide facilities for fishing launches, provision could fie made at the north end of the wharf, by erecting a small crane with a- winch attached at a cost of £35. If this were given effect to the fishermen would have reasonable access to the wharf at all times .without: in any way interfering with the ordinary traffic.

WHARFINGER'S REPORT The Wharfinger (Mr J. W. Harris) presented "a report dealing with the month of May. Cargo figures for the month were:

During May 1927 inward cargo decreased 402 tons and outward cargo increased 199 tons.

The transhipment of 1743 tons fruit per Port Hobart last year more than accounts for the apparent shortage in tonnage. During the earlier part of the past month the wharves kept very busy and all excess labour was engaged. The overseas vessel- Raranga arrived in port on Sunday, Ist .May, and commenced discharging her inward cargo on Monday, 2nd May, and finished unloading and reloading on Friday, 6th May, at 10.30 a.m. The amount of inward cargo was 1186 tons and her outward cargo consisted of 11,461 carcases of mutton, lamb and pork, 100 bales wool, 69 casks tallow, 9 casks pelts, 350 bales hops. I may state during this vessel's stay in Port there was one wet <Si" which hindered us in discharging, but. altogether we were, very fortunate with the Weather. The delivery of the inward cargo of the Raranga was very prompt indeed, and I. would like to) thank the various consignees who had goods in this vessel and gave such a good dispatch. Thursday, 12th May, ended the export fruit' season from here the total shipment from this port being 99,044 rase", of apples and pears. .As wharfinger 1, would like to extend my appreciation through the Board to Messrs Neale, Thorp and Douglas for the courtesv and valuable assistance we received from thern throughout the export fruit, season.

TELEPHONE AT MART A

The Board lias for some lime had under consideration a, request that a. telephone be installed at Mapua wharf. 'I wen other interested bodies had agreed to share the cost and the. Board originally resolved U, contribute one-quarter of the annual fees provided the Control Board 'joined in to make. the. fourth party. The Control Board would not do this and the project, hung; fire. Kurt her representations were made and the matter was finally decided yesterday. The Chairman said he had como to the conclusion thai a telephone at, Mapua was necessary and would be o<i considerable value to the Board. The Board's mutual payment would be £24. which was £6 .more than what a quarter share would have, amounted to. Mr Gould said that he had spoken to seveial exporters who were ineiHi-

vcnienceil by Ihe absence of » 'phono. They wore 'tinnbln to, find mil the position at Mapua :i in I did not know until (hoy sue arrived at Iho wharf if they would bo able to unload their lorries. In some cases men had had to lake (he fruit back again. Decauso of this growers were prepared to pay move cartage to nemJ their fruit to Motueka, where lhcv'y/,cs(!> «ure jt .wou&i., J>e ciearofJMaliua; h'Ml ttljus Joat ,n :jini'iun*.ol iUwie., W», geotyer toad ,■ •s■■ BJ/$i Jiiir. -t'-;.aL- if (->.. lelephoacv vjp.r.e.-i'n-s:.i],U\i;ar iSj.apuu he would reeomrneqea shipping from there instead 01 Motueka. It was tesolved, that the Board contribute one-third of the cost of a telephone at Mapua.

\ "MAIL" CORRESPONDENT CONTRADICTED

The Chairman said that as a rule his polity was to ignore anonymous correspondence criticising the Board in the local newspaper. However, he thought it. was necessary to contradict a, statement, which appeared in "The Ma.il" in' a letter signed "Port." The writer had said that even though it was reported that the. wharf had been repaired aj, fpe western end an examination showed 'hat it had sunk badly. The •Harbourmaster said this statement was quite wrong.

Further business is dealt with else where in this issue.

MEETING OF BOARD

Inward cargo Outward cargo Total 1927 8569 tons 3369 Ions 1926 8971 1- tons tons 11.938 tons 12,141 tons