NEW HARBOUR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 12

NEW HARBOUR

SOUTH WESTLAND JACKSON'S BAY SCHEME COMPLETION OF ROAD LINK [BY TKLECRAPH —OWN* CORRKSFOXDFATI GREYMOUTH, Friday Far South Westland is gradually coming into its own after many years of administrative indifference or neglect-, and the announcement that the Cabinet has approved of the construction of a harbour at Jackson's Bay will remove a further serious handicap to enterprise in the south, permitting the development of the vast resourcegj of timber and minerals in the district to be served by the new harbour, v

The access provided by the harbour at Jackson's Bay will greatly facilitate the task of the Public Works Department in completing the road link between South Westland and Otago. Plans for the harbour have been drawn up by the Public Works Department, and provision has been made for the construction of a wharf 500 ft. in length, including the approach, 200 ft. of which will be taken up by a quay, at the end of which be a depth of approximately ,10ft. at low water spring tides. It improbable that tenders will be called the wharf construction, but it wtft be necessary for the department to set up the organisation there, including'possibly a wirel6ss station. An access road three miles in length from the Arawata River, over a very rugged foreshore, will have to be constructed. It is considered there will be an adequate depth of water for large ocean-going vessels to work the harbour. The construction of the harbour at Jackson's Bay will undoubtedly minimise the possibility of the extension of the West Coast railroad into South Westland from Boss, the present railhead, which has been strongly urged ill recent times, and has been the subject recently of a searching depart* mental investigation.»'

VAST PINE, FORESTS FLATS FOR" GRAZING STRAGETIC CONSIDERATIONS LARGE STATE AERODROME

For manv years the few big runholders in South Westland have either had to send their produce and stock up by pack track to the road terminus at Weheka, the trip taking many days, and sometimes weeks, when the rivers were in flood, or have sent their wool and cattle on to small coastal steamers by lighters—a risky undertaking at most times, and costly as well. For big vessels there has always' been a fine, deep-water anchorage in a sheltered arm of Jackson's Bay, which sweeps out to sea toward the north, giving complete shelter from heavy southerlies and south-westerly gales. It is the safest deep-water anchorage'along' the whole coast.

Beyond Jackson's Bay, untouched and mostly unexplored forests of white pine and red pine stretch along the coast. Scattered between the forests are fine, open river flats, already carrying sheep and cattle, near tha coast; but inland, up the great bed of the Arawata River and Jackson's River valley, for instance, they are unworkable because of the lack of access. This open land—one newly-dis-covered flat has an area of 3000 acres . —can produce the type of fat cattle ■which, after a journey by track, road and rail of several hundred miles, can still top the market at Addington. Because of its nearness to Australia —it is a day's steaming nearer Melbourne than any existing South Island port —Jackson's Bay harbour would probably have a strategic value as well, and it may have been partly this that influenced the Government in deciding to construct a big aerodrome near by. Part of the landing ground, which is , not one of the emergency chain,' but is destined to be a properly-equipped field, is already in use by Air Force and commercial machines.