BUSY TIME AT DOCKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15504, 10 January 1914, Page 8

BUSY TIME AT DOCKS.

MANY VESSELS WAITING.

CALLIOPE AGAIN IN USE.

The Calliope Dock, after being idle for about twelve months, is now in commission again, the extensive work of the installation of the new pumps and the repairs to the caisson having been completed. Owing to the strike there is a great accumulation of vessels for docking, and work at both the Calliope and Auckland Docks is quite abnormal. . During the next few weeks no fewer than seven ves» sels will be going into Calliope Dock. How unusual such activity is may be gauged from the fact that the average number of dockings at this dock is about twenty-four a year.

As already stated the board has decided to close the Auckland Dock, as it interferes with the general scheme of improvement work along the waterfront, particularly the 'provision of convenient access between the Queen's and Hobson Wharves. The dock, however, will not be closed until the board's new slipways at Freeman's Bay have been completed—an event which it is hoped will be reached in about six months' time.

The larger of the class of shipping now accommodated at the Auckland Dock will go to the Calliope Dock after the closing of the former dock. It is proposed that the rates recently adopted for tie use of the Auckland Dock shall- be brought into operation at the Calliope Dock. The smaller of the vessels now using the Auckland Dock will be provided for at the Freeman's Bay slipways.