HARBOUR BOARD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21196, 29 November 1930, Page 19

HARBOUR BOARD.

MONTHLY MEETING. The monthly meeting of the Otago Harbour Board was held last night, and was attended by Captain Coll M'Donald (chairman) and Messrs D. Larnach, J. Loudon, J. W. Munro, M.P., J.'M'C. Dick-, son, H. M. Driver, H. C. Campbell, D, F. H. Sharpe, W. 6. Love, jun., W. Begg, and T. S coll ay. BANK BALANCES. The bank balances showed a net credit of £4158 16s 3d. Accounts amounting to £10,850 Us 3d were passed for payment. VICTORIA WHARF EXTENSION. The Standing Committee reported having confirmed the arrangement with the Milburn Lime and Cement Company for the purchase of the company’s interest in its' lease of- land Bay. The chairman: Are you all agreed to confirmation? Mr Sharpe: No, I am not. The chairman: Is there any more dissent? Agreed to, with the exception of Mr Sharpe. . DONATIONS. The Standing Committee recommended ■ as follows: —(1) With respect to the communciation from the Macandrew Bay Regatta Committee requesting , a donation to its funds and further requesting the use of the Macandrew Bay wharf on the occasion of its forthcoming regatta, that the use of the wharf as requested be granted, but that the request for a dona-, tioa be declined; (2) that the sum of £25 be donated to the funds of the Otago ■Expansion League; (3) that the sum of f J 8g be donated to the Dunedin waterside workers’ picnic funds. Mr Sharpe: Regarding No. i—the granting of the use of the Macandrew Bay wharf—is the wharf in good order? The cbairipan: Yes, it is all right. Mr Sharpe said that they should not accept any responsibility if it was not all right. , Mr Love said he would like to see the clauses taken separately, and this course was agreed to. # ' Mr Scollay moved the adoption of clause 1, Mr Dickson seconded, and the clause was adopted. Mr Scollay moved abd Mr Dickson seconded that clause No. 2 be adopted. Mr Mpuro moved as an amendment that the league be granted £SO instead of £25. That was £SO less than was given, last year. He thought it was the duty of the board to support the league. Mr Loudon seconded the amendment. He said that the league was doing good work and they should support it. It was helping to send their port ahead and to develop Central Otago. , He would like to have seen the grant made £IOO, the same as last year. It had been the feeling of the, committee,'however, that they should cut down the expenses of the board as much as possible, Mr Larnach: I don’t like this shillyshallying—going back oh things decided at the full meeting of the Standing Committtee. 1 object to that sort of thing. I hope the board will stick to its decision in this case. The board has very little money to give away, and it ought to be as economical as it possibly can. Mr ' Love > supported the amendment. By just cutting the previous donation in half they were doing the least they could for the league. Mr Sharpe agreed that the board must curtail its expenditure, , He intended to support the recommendation that £25 be given. Mr Dickson said he saw no reason why they should go hack on the decision of the Standing Committee. The board was not in a position to give, away money for anything outside of its own work, and he thought the Standing had stretched a point in recommending £2sj ■Mr Campbell admitted that the league had done good work in the pact; and he’ hoped It would continue to do good work. He thought, however, that! £25 was all they could honestly afford to give this year. __Mr _ Begg supported the amendment. He -did not think they should cut these people off altogether. Reducing the sum to £25 has been better, no doubt, than giving nothing at all. Mr Dickson; I should not have given anything. . Mr-Begg said that the league was not self-supporting. It was dependent for its finance on contributions - from public bodies. The amendment was lost by four votes to six. Messrs Love, Munro, Lundon, and Begg voted for the amendment. The recommendation of the committee was adopted. Mr Campbell moved the adoption of clause 3... ■ Mr Sharpe seconded the motion. Mr Begg:. Well, that is not very consistent. . Mr Sharpe: You are dependent on the waterside workers to a large extent. • The clause was, adopted. APPOINTMENT OF VALUER. The Standing Committee recommended that Mr G. Simpson be appointed th# boards valuer for’the year 1931. BOARD MEETINGS. The Standing Committee recommended that in future the monthly and Standing Committee meetings be held on Thursday evenings. The motion was carried. PILE BEACONS. A recommendation by the Standing Committee that two pile beacons be epec , , Quarantine ffsland was adopted. TENDERS. ; The following tenders for annual supplies wer«_aoceptedCement, Milburn Lime and Cement Co.. £6 per ton; coal a * Fort Chalmers, Messrs J. Mill and Co., at the following rates: Unscreened, 51s l fi £ reei J e d Mb 6d par ton. ex hu(k 50s_6d per ton; drivers, horses, and drays, Messrs M. Stevenson, Ltd., 3s 2Jd per hour; drivers, horses, and vehicles, Messrs M, Stevenson, Ltd., at schedule rates; benzine, “Plume” (Vacuum Oil Co.) to be used exclusively for the pilot launch, ana the balance of the contract to be equally divided between the VacuumTexas . Oil Comnanies, at schedule rates; fuel oil. Vacuum Oil Co., llid per gallon; kerosene. Shell Oil Co., 12a 6d per case; lubricating oils. Vacuum Oil Co.; timber—Mesßrs M’Calr o an !A S- M. Howison and Son. Sf WW Hogg and £?•>,;ith Ramsay and Co., and H. V. Haddock, Ltd., at schedule rater. OIL OR COAL? When the question of accepting a f °JL th i? •f upply of oil-fuel, for firing unddr boilers came np for consideration Mr Dickson said it w£ Zposed to send a considerable of Thff y m ° Ut o£ e v Co , untry for fuel oil. Ihat money could be kept in the country it they used coal, and employment would be found for their own people. He moved aa f aa amendment-'- That the. matter be referred back to the Standing Committee *°v further consideration.” Scollay amendment was seconded by Mr The chairman stated that the board, ? P«hhc body, had as much right to work economically as a private concern had. He was quite prepared to prove to every member of the heard that it was economical to use oil. . Dickson said he agreed with the e t that get work done a« cheaply as possible as a rule, but there to I tor Dicin’ proceeded the tug Dunedin. from e the potot D; Y ° U CanDOt Ret awa3r inSanc^. iCkS ° n: 1 a ” quoting thi3 as an chairman: I rule you out of order. Stick _ to the point. There is n 0 use dragging m the tug. Mr Dickson stated that he saw no reason for the heat displayed by the chairman. On other occasions the board had spent a great deal more to get work none in New Zealand when they could have got it done very much more cheaply cuteide the country. He contended that they were entirely wrong—sending money out of the country for oil, when they could get coal here. Reports by the engineer showed that two tons of coal were, equal to one ton of oil. It was news to him to learn that the handling of coal was such a big question as it had been found to be when this matter was gone I into. There were members of the board i who were wedded to a certain course, and ) if there was any opposition to them they were on their "hind legs” immediately. 1 He was quite satisfied that the people of New Zealand would support his statement that as a public body, getting its revenue from the public, the board was doing wrong m sending out of the country for fuel when it could bo procured in the country. The amendment m lost hr eight votw

to two, and the tender of the Shell Oil Company was accepted, TRANSHIPPING CARGO. Mr Campbell said he would like-to refer to the fact that two vessels—the W&tmoreland and the Port Hunter—were not coming to Dunedin, but were transhipping their cargoes for here at Wellington, He considered it was very unfortunate for the port that shipowners, where' the cargo was jmall, should tranship it at Wellington. The speaker referred to the loss to the port through the’ ships not coming here, and said he thought the board should take into serious consideration the question of trying to encourage ships to come here. The importers would no doubt benefit, but the board would lose. , The Westmoreland had 200 tons of cargo for Dunedin. The cargo on the Port Hunter was not yet available. The chairman: Have these vessels cargo for Lyttelton? Mr Campbell: Yes, it is also being transhipped at Wellington. The chairman said he wanted to make this point quite clear. The action of the ■ shipowners was therefore not -prompted by any question of high charges at this port. Mr Loudon: What do you suggest, Mr Campbell? It is no use just making statements. Mr Campbell; We want to go into the matter. Mr Loudon: The ehairmau put his finger on the position. The position that has arisen has nothing to do with the charges at the port. The companies do it to please themselves. Mr Larnach said he thought the Chamber of Commerce might he asked to look into the matter; Mr Loudon: What do yon suggest it should do? , Mr Scollay said he wanted to strike a glad note —that was that three overseas vessels were going to make Port Chalmers their final port of departure in January next. They should do everything to get vessels to make th< port the final port of departure. Mr Sharpe maid that the thing to encourage vessels to come here was trade.— (“Hear, hear.”! If-thsy had not the cargo they could not expect the ships to come here. . The discussion then ended. , ENGINEER'S REPORT. ' Mr M'Q. Wilkie reported as follows under date November 17:— . After undergoing annual survey and overhaul/ the dredge Otakou resumed operations on October 21, and during the period October 21-31 dredged 7400 1 cubic yards at the Victoria wharf. All of this material was deposited at the Heads. The dredge steamed 182 miles and consumed 50 tons of oil. ” Dredge Vulcan.—The installation of the new 800 b.p. motor and pump was completed,'and on the evening of November 16 the dredge commenced pumping _ spoil into'the south, endowment reclamation. During the month of October four vessels were docked at the Otago at Port Chalmers docks. The drainage pumps were in operation for 414 hours. The sheerlegs were in operation for nine hours and a-balf and the electric crane for 22 hours 54 minutes. Mole Reconstruction. —During the four’ weeks- ended November 8, 2740 cubic yards of stone .were deposited on - the Mole, 264 cubic yards of - ballast on the various railway tracks, 291 cubic yards of metal on tbe Port road, and 204 cubic yards of metal on the Aramoana Township/ road. No. 13 tunnel shot- at the north .end of the old Quarry was cleaned down, and is -now in a safe, condition from which to load stone. No. 3 tunnel shot was fired on Friday, October 24, Victoria Reconstruction.—Four bays. of concrete deck were opened up, and the old material removed, eight newiron bark caps fitted and bolted in* position, 23 , new deck beams fitted and fastened“down, and three bays of sleepers laid and spiked in position. George Street Pier, Port Chalmers Twelve old piles were drawn, seven new piles driven in the outside row;of the northern berths, and two interior piles driven. The necessary caps and bracing were fastened to facilitate the driving of tbe hew piles and rebolted, ‘and secured in position again/. Birch Street Wharf.—Repairs were effected to various portions of the decking on the structure, 1 and new blocks fitted in railway points. Ravensbourhe Wharf.—The construoton of this pier is proceeding rapidly. The driving of the vertical piles of the main wharf was completed all the caps fitted and partially bolted up, and 180 deck beams fitted and secured in position. A small portion of the approach superstructure remains to be completed, the necesssrjr deck beams having arrived. Practically no decking has yet been laid, except for 12 bays at the landward end of the approach. The more difficult work of driving tbe raking piles is proceeding satisfactorily, to date 14 on tne outside of the main pier head having been driven. A five-pile structure was erected’ at the dredge , Vulcan’s pit to , facilitate the mooring of dredge Otakou when depositing spoil, , South /Endowment Wall.—Approximately IS chains of the seaward face of this-wall has been hand pitched. Tug- Dunedin Lifeboats.—The new lifeboat, constructed at the board’s workshop,, was completed “ and placed on the tug Dunedin and the bid lifeboat repaired. Cross Wharf .—The deck of the structure was treated with a coating of bitumen applied hot, and dusted with quarry chips well' rolled. ' HARBOUR MASTER’S REPORT. The harbour master (Captain MacLeau) reported as follows for the /period ended November 18:—North channel: On the line of leads- the least water is 3fl feSt at outer end of the bank. From the' Mole cud to Port Chalmers wharves there is 30 feet at low water, with a width in Deborah Bay of 300. feet. The >Victoria channel is maintaining a depth of 20 feet at low. yater, . .SHIPPING; RETURNS. Arrivals.—Dunedin: - Costal, 29 vessels/ 18,773 tons; intercolonial, 5 vessels, 10,660 tons; .overseas, 7 vessels, > 30,383 tons;— totals, 41 vessels, 59,716 tons. Arrivals.—-Port Chalmers: Costal, 2 vessels, 1310 tons;/overseas, 6 vessels, 23,788 tons;—totals, 7 vessels, 25,098 .tons. Departures.—Dunedin: Costal, 26 vessels, 17,400 tons; intercolonial, 3 vessels, 8076 tons; overseas, 8 vessels, 30,875 tons; —totals, 37 vessels, 66,360 tons. Departures.—Port Chalmers: {utercolomal, 1 vessel, 1154 tons; overseas, 4 vessels, 20,143 tons; —totals, 5 vessels, 21,297 tons.