MAGNIFICENT HARBOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17956, 5 December 1921, Page 10

MAGNIFICENT HARBOUR.

IMPROVEMENT SCHEME. EXTENSIVE COOL STORES. Whangarei can claim to have one of the most beautiful, extensive, and advantage, ous harbours in Now Zealand. Onerahi, a charming seaside resort, five miles by rail from Whangarei, is tho present deep sea port of Whangarei. The harbour board has just completed a loan of £120,000 for harbour improvements designed to bring the deep sea wharves much nearer to the capital town, and connect directly with the main North railway. The construction- of extensive cool stores for butter, fruit, etc., is also a part of this scheme. The harbour is some 18 miles long, and, besides Whangarei and Onerahi, it possesses shipping wharves at Oakleigh, Mangapai, Parua Bay, Marsden Point, and Portland. The first of theso i 8 largely used for stock, and the last-named in connection with the immense industry of the Portland Cement works, one of the largest, and from an engineering point of view .the most modern and thoroughly equipped cement plant in the Southern Hemisphere. Tho Whangarei Harbour has the deepest and safest entrance of any harbour in the Dominion, with no bar, and no artificial channel to maintain. Over 5000 acres of this harbour are under reclamation by tho harbour board, and in due course these areas will become very profitable land. The newly-acquired harbour dredge is now very successfully employed in the twin labour of dredging a part of the estuary, and at the same time ' depositing the spoil to form the uncompleted part of the new road between Onerahi and Whangarei, which lies for some distance on the flat alongside the tidal river.