PORT DEVELOPMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25801, 23 March 1945, Page 6

PORT DEVELOPMENT

EARLY ASSOCIATIONS OPENING OF VICTORIA CHANNEL The early association of the Kamsay family with the development of the Port of Otago was recalled at the monthly meeting of the Otago Harbour Board last night by the presentation to the board by Mr Keith S. Ramsay of a photograph of his mother, who opened the Victoria channel on December 30, 1881. In handing the photograph to tho chairman of the board (Mr K. S. Thompson), Mr Ramsay said that in the late seventies the channel irom Port Chalmers to Dunedin was on the east side of the harbour, but the board of the day considered it inadequate for the needs of Dunedin, and it was decided to dredge a new channel. On December 30, 1881, he added, this channel, which was dredged from Port Chalmers to Dunedin, was opened by his mother. The Union Steam Ship Company offered the services of its steamer Penguin for the ceremony. The vessel was commanded by Captain Edie, the pilot being Captain Paton. The official party journeyed to Port Chalmers by special train, returning by the Penguin via the new channel. It was accompanied by the speaker, then a small boy. Although very short notice had been given of the ceremony, Mr Ramsay said, it was apparently a red-letter day for the city, as bunting was freely displayed. His father, then chairman of the board, told the gathering that no more proper name could be given to the new channel than to calf it after the reigning sovereign. His mother then broke a bottle of champagne on the side of the Penguin and christened the channel “The Victoria.” Various speakers congratulated the board on its enterprise, and optimistic prophecies, which had since been fulfilled, were made regarding the Victoria channel. Central Otago Irrigation Mr Ramsay went on to urge the people of Dunedin to press for the irrigation of Central Otago. There would be large quantities of goods going to Central Otago, he said, and a great deal of produce coming from there. South Westland would be opened up before long, and timber would probably be coming from there before the end of the year. With the completion of the road from the head of the Haast River to Haast township, a distance of only 32 miles, Dunedin would be brought within one day of this area, which would be a wonderful asset to Otago. “ When, many years ago, a progressive spirit had the temerity to predict that 10,000-ton vessels would some day berth at Dunedin, his prediction was greeted with ridicule and incredulous laughter,” said Mr Thompson in acknowledging the gift. The prophecy, however, had been overfulfilled when nearly 10 years ago the Tuscan Star, of 11.500 tons, had berthed here. With the widening of the channel at the midway islands an accomplished fact, the time was not far distant, he added, when 20.000-ton vessels would be able to discharge and load at Dunedin. A Valuable Asset

Mr Thompson said that Mr Ramsay’s family had had a very long association with the Port of Otago, even prior to 1874, the date of the constitution of the Otago Harbour Board. The late Mr Keith Ramsay had been a member of the first board and its fourth chairman, holding that office from 1880 to 1883. Mr Ramsay himself was a valued member of the board from 1921 to 1927. The momentous decision so to construct the Victoria Channel that all shipping would eventually be able to berth at Dunedin was made in 1875, Mr Ramsay’s father therefore being one of the select band of pioneers whose vision and courage gave Otago the valuable asset that now enabled large overseas vessels to berth at Dunedin.

The Victoria Channel had proved one of the- soundest investments yet undertaken in Otago, the chairman declared. In normal times it saved in railage and railway sorting charges more than £IOO,OOO a year, so that its cost, £500,000, was recouped once in every five years. Its maintenance dedging cost only £7OO a year.