HARBOUR BOARD AFFAIRS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22022, 3 August 1933, Page 15

HARBOUR BOARD AFFAIRS

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —The letter appearing in your issue of to-day over the signature of “ Extravaganza ” discloses the fact that he knows little about harbour engineering matters, or is trying to create a feeling amongst the public against the chief engineer, Mr Wilkie, who is one of the most loyal and capable servants the Otago Harbour has ever had. The statement that the soundings taken by the engineer are not recognised by the harbour master is not correct. In all harbours the survey -plans are made by the engineer, which show in detail all the channels, banks, beacons, coastal features, depth contours, etc. This information is accurately plotted on a plan, a copy of which is forwarded to the Admiralty in London, which reproduces it and publishes it as the official chart of the port, and it is used by all navigators. The New Zealand. Marine Department also reproduces this chart in its edition of the Nautical Almanac. These charts have to be kept up to date, and it is the duty of the engineer to see that all alterations in depths, position of beacons, etc., are correctly charted. Now, this is not the only use of these charts. It is absolutely necessary for engineering purposes to have certain sections of the harbour periodically sounded so that the dredging progress may be recorded, and comparisons made where depths are fluctuating or tidal currents altering. This is especially necessary in a port such as ours_ where dredging and breakwater construction are being undertaken. Before an engineer can advise his board he must have these data, and it is of little use to him unless compiled at regular intervals. _ Without this, how could an engineer estimate for dredging or give an opinion regarding the sand movements at the Heads due to the works at the mole? The harbour master does take soundings for his own information, and such is the case in every port. But they are taken on quite a different method, and not for plotting purposes, and only in special portions of the navigating channel which are likely to alter in depths. To suggest that the engineering of the Otago Harbour, which is the most intricate of all the harbours in New Zealand, should be placed in the hands of a mechanical engineer is A mechanical tradesman is all right in his own job in maintaining the mechanical plant, but to ask him to undertake work for which his education has never trained him would be par with expecting a chemist to diagnose a case of a doctor’s. The suggestion that Mr Williams should be called in for advice is farcical. Mr Williams has no experience whatsoever on harbour works, and as a professional man would not undertake a branch of engineering quite foreign to him. Harbour engineering is a special branch; it is not an exact science; one has first to study the subject and then learn it in the hard school of long experience.—l am, etc., ECONOMY. Dunedin, August 2.