SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1934 A WORD ABOUT HARBOURS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 28 April 1934, Page 4

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1934 A WORD ABOUT HARBOURS

TIIE harbours of the world may bo divided into three classes: (1) Those which are Nature’s unaided work, (2) Those which are the conjoint work ot Nature and Man, (3) and those which are artificial, constructed by Man with little or no assistance from Nature; and they rank in importance in the order named. All the great harbours of the world belong to the class first named — London, Liverpool, New York, Sydney, and many more, and it is to be noted that the countries which have the greatest number of such harbours possess the greatest transoceanic trade. Eor instance England, whose trade, paramount for a hundred years, is today of maximum importance in spite of iho post-war depression, is a country noted for the number and excellence of its harbours, well distributed along the cast, southern, and west coasts. The principal of such ports are Newcastle, Sunderland, Hull, London, Portsmouth and Southampton, Plymouth, Bristol, Swansea, and Cardiff (in Wales), and Liverpool, while in Scotland there is the important port of Glasgow, and in Ulster there is Belfast. All these are natural harbours, and the number of them which are situated at the entrance of rivers is. remarkable —Newcastle, Sunderland, Hull, London, Bristol, Liverpool, and. Glasgow being the principal British ports so situated. Of course in the case of practically all the chief ports of Great Britain improvements have been made by dredging, but the fact remains that they are primarily the work of Nature. There is, liowcvei) the port of Dover (growing in importance because of the increasing passenger traffic between England and the Continent) which may be classed as an artificial harbour, constructed by the ingenuity and industry of Man: but this does not. alter the fact that in England there lias been no serious attempt to create great harbours where Nature did not intend them to exist. It has been said with truth chat England’s maritime greatness originated with her geographical position in relation, to the Continent of Europe and in file multiplicity of excellent harbours with which she was endowed by Nature. In that respect New Zealand is in very much the same position. She possesses the first-class harbours oi Auckland, Wellington, and Lyttelton, and the very useful harbour of Port Chalmers. However, New Zealanders have not seemed content to let Nature do her work for them in relation to the provision of harbours, but have insisted at Oamaru, Timnru, Napier and New Plymouth, in making harbours where no harbours were intended to he by Nature. How much money has been spent in this direction is difficult to estimate, but it lias been very great, and the results in Timaru and Oamaru

liave only been partially successful, though it is hoped that at Napier and 1 New Plymouth permanent success lias 1 been attained. Picton is to be number- - ed among the natural harbours of New j Zealand, and there is not much doubt that, as its hinterland becomes thickly i populated, its importance will grow pro- I portionately. Nelson, too, may be said ' to be in the same category. Its harbour j is the work of Nature, rather than of i Alan, and it is to be noted that the site 1 of Nelson City was chosen by its ; founder, Captain Arthur Wakefield, : R.N., largely because of the excellence : of its harbour. True, in those days (be ; average size of vessels trading to New Zealand was .not much above SCO tons, and with the passing of time and the great increase in the size of vessels trading to New Zealand it lias been necessary to supplement the work of Nature by dredging and making a new : entrance to Nelson Haven, but the fact remains that it is a natural harbour capable of being improved as the expansion of trade necessitates. The cause of its freedom from the danger of silting up is to be found in the great volume of its tidal water and the excessive scour resulting from the outflow of the tide from the large, shallow mudflat area. Its long boulder-bank, though not unique, is an interesting example oi Nature’s harbour-making, for it js upwards of seven miles long. Thirty years ago. when it was decided to make the new entrance through the boulder-bank and construct a protective mole on its southern seaward sides, the work was proceeded with in conformity with the plans of an expert harbour-engineer, though those plans were not carried out in their full entirety, largely because of the necessity for economy. It was a red letter day for Nelson when the new harbour entrance was opened and the workers for Nelson’s advancement in this respect will be long remembered. Still, subsequent events have shown that it is a thousand pities the original plans were ever departed from, for in being a port mainly of last discharge or first loading Nelson is under a distinct disadvantage which it will be found necessary to rectify in the near future. At the same | time, compared with many other ports, | Nelson and district are happy in possessing a harbour suitable for overseas trade : which cost comparatively little (as the ! cost of harbour construction goes) and presents no great difficulty to improvements. Of the smaller ports, Alotueka’s harbour is the most important so far as tlie Nelson district is concerned. The Alotueka Harbour Board has been faced with many difficulties, and it still has a large problem to solve. It is to be hoped every effort will he made to arrive at a satisfactory solution for anything which adds unnecessarily to transport costs between the agricultural areas and the centres is an economic waste, and a handicap to the whole district. It cannot, however, be overlooked that both Nelson and Alotueka harbours are situated, near the head of a large bay and that large quantities of silt and sand are being deposited continually in the shallower waters. The importance of the scour from the harbours can hardly be over-estimated. It is for this reason it is probable that reclamation work oil a large scale will never be permitted in Nelson harbour.