WESTPORT HARBOUR INQUIRY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8526, 16 September 1913, Page 7

WESTPORT HARBOUR INQUIRY

FURTHER EVIDENCE. Press Association. WESTPORT, September 15. Evidence was given at the Harbour Commission to-day. by Captains Pryde, Holmes, and Mawson, all on lines similar to those given previously by the captains of vessels. Mr Barrowman, of Nelson, formerly inspector for the Harbour Board works, considered it unwise to construct walls without staging, as the scour would wash away mack of the stone. Mr F. Munro gave further evidence. He did not accept as all gospel the condemnation of the floating basin. He believed the port had a great future, as there were big fields of coal at Blackburn, requiring six miles and a half of railway in addition to that at present constructed; also at Charleston and Brighton, and indications of a large field of coal between Capo Fonlwind and Addison, and he believed the demands on coal for mail boats would be great when the Panama Canal was constructed. Big works must necessarily bo proceeded with at Westport to meet the demand. . Asked by Mr Ferguson if he did not think it a mistake not to conserve the coal there was in the country for the country’s use, witness said they might look foolish if they nursed their coal now, and later found that other agencies such as oil and electricity had displaced coal as a commercial asset.