A DREDGE IN DEMAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22718, 2 November 1935, Page 12

A DREDGE IN DEMAND

While it is complimentary to' the efficiency of the Otago Harbour Board's dredge that the vessel should be so much in demand for harbour work at Napier, it would certainly be injudicious on the Board's part to permit the temptation of the revenue which it would derive from a charter of the Otakou to over-ride a due regard for its . own harbour requirements. The rejection of the Napier Harbour Board's request in January last evidently did not deprive that body of hope of yet securing the services of the .dredge, and further overtures by it on the subject were under consideration by the Otago Board at its meeting on Thursday evening. Although the discussion showed members to be still divided in their opinions on the matter, the upshot was a decisive confirmation of the Board's previous decision. The Otakou is not to leave Otago Harbour. It is certainly rather difficult to imagine that any good or sufficient reason exists why the grounds upon which the Board rejected the idea of chartering the dredge to Napier nine months ago should not possess equal weight at the present time. The reports from its engineer and its harbourmaster, by which the Board must have been mainly guided in reaching its earlier decision, both discouraged the idea of the loan of the dredge, and were based equally on an examination by these officers of the conditions under which the dredge would work at Napier and on the call that was to be anticipated on the services of the dredge in the Otago Harbour. In the course of his report the engineer wrote of the feeling of insecurity which the thought of the absence of the dredge must create, referred to the possibility of the vessel incurring in the conditions that would be experienced at Napier a straining of which the results might not be immediately evident, and recalled that the Board had decided in 1932 on a dredging programme which was not yet completed. Indeed, he said, "it would appear we are falling behind in our preparations for accommodating the trade of the port, especially as to the width and depth of the Victoria Channel." It may be a mere coincidence that two members of the Board who have been very active in urging that the dredge should go to Napier are also not at all anxious to see big ships coming up the Victoria Channel. The position as regards the amount of dredging required in Otago Harbour in the immediate future may differ somewhat from the position that existed nearly a year ago, but the weight of the argument as to the Board's own dredging requirements may, from a statement made by the chairman at this week's meeting relative to the engineer's anticipations, be judged to be greater now than it previously was. The Otago Board has given the request of the Napier Board fair consideration. It has balanced the financial aspect of the proposal against the possible risk to its dredge and against the needs of its own harbour. In deciding that it cannot spare the dredge it has given proper regard to the interests which are its particular responsibility.