AUCKLAND'S SHIPBUILDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13096, 8 February 1906, Page 6

AUCKLAND'S SHIPBUILDING.

rrs IMPORTANCE AND EXTENT.

THE ANNUAL WAGES BILL.

BUILDERS CRAMPED FOR ROOM.

Ai'ABT from ihose actually engaged in the industry, comparatively few people have any clear idea of the importance and dimensions ot the shipbuilding industry in Auckland, and fewer still seem to realise how its growth synchronises with the growth of the port. One builder has volunteered the statement that the ship and boatbuilding business in Auckland has increased tenfold during the past eight or 10 years.

Inquiries made show that this estimate was not very wide of the mark. Not only have local requirements had to be met, but there is an increasing number of orders for other ports in the colony, for Australia, and the Islands. Auckland-built vessels are to be found on the registers of places so far distant as Port Natal and Honolulu, such vessels being built to the order of present owners. The Australian Register of Shipping for 1906 shows that there are at present in commission no '.ess than 193 vessels that have been built in Auckland, and these vary from a five-ton yacht to an iron screw steamer of 500 tons. Vessels built in Auckland 30, and even 40, years ago are still in commission in various parts of Australia. For example, the schooner Dancing Wave, 51 tons, launched in Auckland in 1864, and the brigantine Roderick Dhu, 163 tons, launched in 1875, are still trading out of Maryborough, while the Elsinore, schooner, 56 tons, and the steamer Argyle, 159 tons, both launched in Auckland in 1875, appear on the registers of Melbourne and Adelaide respectively, and there are numerous other vessels built on the Waitemata in the seventies that are trading in Australia and the Islands at the present day.

To-day, steamers of any size up to 500 tons are fumed out of Auckland yards, and there is every prospect of the keels of much larger vessels being laid down in the immediate future. Among the larger vessels recently turned out, notwithstanding inadequate building accommodation, are the iron steamer Putiki, 409 tons, the ferry steamers Albatross and Kestrel, of over 250 tons each, and several sailing vessels of from 100 to 200 tons. One schooner at present on the stocks is to be of 150 tons, and it will be fitted with oil-engines. These are but samples of the kind of work turned out, and they but represent a long line of vessels. Auckland builders are singularly well placed for carrying on business, in that they have ample water, abundant timber on the spot, and the call upon some of the highest grade workmen in the southern hemisphere —a statement that is made upon a firm basis of fact. Auckland still occupies its high place among the shipbuilding ports of the southern world, and has never been surpassed in the designing of the smaller class of wooden vessels for purposes of pleasure or trade. VALUE OF LOCAL WORK. An estimate has been prepared of the value of the local wooden steamers under 210 ft i* length which have been built in Auckland, and are now trading out of the port, and' the value reaches £140,000. This does not include the cost of construction and equipment/ of other vessels that have been specially built for local use, including schooners, scows, oil-launches, fishing boats, yachts, and cruising yachts, boats, etc., which may safely be said to bring the figures up to lully £300,000n0t at all an i inconsiderable output. To get at the : financial value of the output of local yards , is by no means easy, and, further, would necessitate firms imparting information to other people which they, reasonably enough, are disposed to keep to . themselves, but this much may be divulged, that last year the shipbuilders employed over 200 permanent- and at least temporaTy hands, to whom was distributed nearly £21,100 in wages. If to these be added the engineers who do marine work, it will be found that nearly 700 men were employed, to whom was paid in wages the sum of £68,000. It is a point upon which local builders lay some stress, and is mentioned hero without any comment one way or the other, that a great deal of work is done out of the port of Auckland, out of the colony, in fact, that could well be done here, and enquiries made upon this line show that the coat of building out of Auckland iron and steel vessels of under 210 ft in length to the order of local owners, and for the local trade, has amounted to from £290,000 to £300,000. Builders are unanimous that this work could have been done here as well as elsewhere, and would have given a big impetus and much encouragement to iron shipbuilding. | REPAIRING AND OVERHAULING. | It is . important to remember that the ; largo and increasing volume of business done by Auckland shipbuilder is distribute led' among a considerable number of tradesI people. We need only mention in this connection metal workers, sailmakers, rig[gers, upholsterers, and timber merchants. j Inquiries made among timber merchants ! revealed the important fact that the Auckland shipbuilders' bill for kauri timber alone averages £1000 per month, which, it may be pointed, out, does not include other timbers, such as puriri and pohutukawa. Enough has been shown to justify attention being drawn to the importance and extent of shipbuilding in Auckland, before proceeding to a description of the work turned out, and drawing conclusions us to the future of the industry. GROWTH OF AUCKLAND'S TONNAGE. It may be of interest here to state the position of the port of Auckland ip relation' to the other ports of Australasia ■with reference to the tonnage registered. Auckland stands fifth, Sydney being first. Melbourne next, Dunedin third, and Adelaide fourth. The sail and steam tonnage in tile Auckland register, to June 30, 1901, totalled 24,775 tons; in 1905, it amounted to 26,123 tons. In Dunedin, in 1901. sail and steam vessels registered amounted to 98,304. in 1905 this had declined to 65,787 tons. In Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, are registered the vessels belonging to such important lines as the Huddart-Parker, Howard Smith, Adelaide Steamship, and Archibald Currie lines, while Dunedin is the headquarters of the Union Steamship Company, with a total tonnage of 108,063 tons, although some of the vessels are registered elsewhere. The only large line on the Auckland registry is the Northern Steamship Company's fleet, the itinerary of which is practically restricted to the provincial district of Auckland, excepting one steamer on the Onehunga-New Plymouth run, and another on the Onehunga-Wanganui service. The total tonnage of this company amounts to 6000 tons, and the largest vessel, the Rarawa, is 1077 tons. The itineraries of the other Auckland lines of steamers are strictly local. There are, of course, a number of square-rigged vessels on the Auckland register which are generally docked, overhauled, and repaired, in Auckland. REPAIRING FACILITIES. In regard to facilities foi docking and effecting repairs to vessels of every description, Auckland is particularly well placed,

standing second in Australasia in the matter of dry docks, being inferior only to Sydney, where the largest dry dock is 765 ft long and 85ft broad, with 28ft of water at the sill at ordinary high water. The Calliope Dock is 525 ft. long and 80ft broad, but the depth of water on the sill at ordinary high water is 55ft—a manifest advantage over the biggest Sydney dock' in this particular. The magnitude and general character of the repairs effected to His Majesty's warships. to the ocean liner Niwaru, and some other large vessels that have used the Calliope Dock, speak more eloquently than mere words can do of the suitability of Auckland as the port for extensive works of this kind. A SHIPBUILDING AREA.

Provision has been made in the new harbour works scheme, which is now being carried into effect by the Harbour Board, for the location of shipbuilders and engineers doing marine work, on sites which will give general satisfaction, so fax as space, water, and access by land are concerned. The and access by land are concerned. The only difference between the builders and engineers and the Board is upon the question of tenure and riparian rights. This matter still awaits adjustment. Most of the builders admit that their present premises are not kept in that order that they would like, and they agree that from the outside the shops and yards convey a misleading idea of the character and magnitude of the work done within, but they urge that the Harbour Board, who are the landlords, are to blame for this, as the terms of the leases make no provision for compensation for improvements if the sections should be vacated, and further, that- the tenure is such as to deter them from undertaking any costly additions, erections, or repairs. It. is to rectify this j.tate of things that the builders and engineers press that leases of the new sites to be reclaimed near St. Mary's Point, I'onsonby, should be for a period of not less than 42 years, with fixed riparian rights for at least 21 years, and, in the event of the surrender of such riparian rights at the expiration of 21 years, provision should be made for suitable sites with deep water frontage for the balance of the lease. The Board, on the other hand, adheres to the position that the proposed sections shall be leased with riparian rights for a period of 10 years, lessees to receive 12 months' notice should the land be required for other purposes.

Most of the builders and those engaged in kindred trades, who were semi in connection with this matter, said they would spend many thousands upon buildings and equipment if the tenure pressed for were granted, and all recognised that the Board was at heart anxious to do its utmost for the extension of the shipbuilding, marine engineering, and connected industries of Auckland.

When the matter is settled satisfactorily, and the builders and engineers take up occupation of the new sites, it is to be reasonably expected that the industry will be more than doubled in volume, for already it is manifest that there is more work to be done than present accommodation will permit. Indeed, several builders affirm thatthey have had to refuse work from lack of elbow room.