UPPER HARBOUR MATTERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18374, 14 April 1923, Page 10

UPPER HARBOUR MATTERS.

SUGGESTED LOCK SCHEME. OWNERSHIP OF HARBOUR BED. The half-yearly meeting of the Auckland Upper Harbour Association was held in the Chamber of Commerce yesterday. - The president, Mr. R. J. Eames, stated 'that the upper harbour shipping services were being purchased by one concern. ,He detailed ; the work of the executive in its endeavours' to secure rapid and frequent communication' with the city, and said that if the new arrangement did not give satisfactory results, the settlers would have to take matters into their own hands by forming a company with a substantial capital for the purpose. The question of the damming of the Waitemata River by the construction of a lock between Birkdale and Hobsonville was discussed. In a letter Mr. F. Finch, C.E., of Napier, stated that from his personal acquaintance with the locality he considered the ;* proposal was . quite practicable. The executive was requested to obtain more detailed data, and again to approach the Harbour Board on the subject. • v_ Mr. F. W. Collins introduced the question of the advisability of vesting . the bed of the sea iia the upper harbour in the Auckland Hsirbour Board'instead of the Marine Department. It was remarked that the Harbour Board's policy was against the construction of new wharves until the tidal lands were vested in the board. The complaint was made that the delay and conditions attached to the issue of licenses by the Marine Department made the construction of even small launch wharves impossible. After discussion the desirability bf the board owning the' harbour bed was affirmed almost unanimously. < . - Mr. W. H. Madill was elected vicepresident, and Messrs. E. C. Walton, S. S. Rout, G. Clifton, and H. Day were elected members of the executive.