NEED FOR MARINE SURVEYS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21806, 22 May 1934, Page 8

NEED FOR MARINE SURVEYS

The statement of an Auckland master mariner that "all the New Zealand coast requires resurveying" gives point to the recent revival of interest in the coastal charting of the Dominion. This is a work as yet inadequately done, as from time to time the public has reminder when courts of inquiry are held concerning major or minor mishaps to shipping. Certain parts of the work can be done by officials of the several Harbour Boards, and the Marine Department has a large measure of responsibility, but the onus lies chiefly on the Admiralty, if only because of its possession of the necessary staff and equipment for so highly technical a task. This is especially so where deeper levels of the sea-bottom are involved, for even in such areas are risks from shoals emerging from those levels, and the outer landfalls of our extensive coast are important in reference to the requirements of essential oversea transport arriving and departing. Employing its hydrographic department, the Admiralty has rendered much good service, but the length of time required for complete surveys of any extent is inevitably so great that seldom can this service accomplish all that is desirable in this distant portion of the Empire. It is to be remembered, also, that changes, some of them considerable, take place with irregular frequency, making the need for a fresh' survey always more or less impelling. New Zealand has many harbours formed and affected by rivers carrying a considerable body of water, a condition making insistent if not constant demands on the hydrographer. The story of the Orpheus catastrophe on the Manukau Bar impresses this sort of need, for it was occasioned by dependence on a chart inapplicable at the time. Of the other sort the fate of the steamer Penguin, lost by unexplained and mysterious striking, apparently, of an uncharted rock, is a grievous instance. There has b'eeh excellent progress in the lighting of the main seaways adjacent to the shores of the Dominion, and the fraction of maritime peril is far smaller than once it was; yet gaps of charting remain to be filled, and until the whole survey is thoroughly done "shipping is exposed to an avoidable residue of risk. It is well that the Admiralty is again in communication with the Marine Department on this urgent matter. The various port authorities should continue to be alertly concerned and co-operate readily in every aspect of the endeavour to reduce risks to an absolute minimum.