OTAGO HARBOUR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2862, 20 January 1909, Page 16

OTAGO HARBOUR.

THE HISTORY OF~THE PORT. PART HI.— FROM THE "EIGHTIES" =- ; TO TO-DAY. Early in 1832- the Harbour Board began ' : to - experience thai embarrassment -which i arises from an unsatisfactory financial position, and the records of its proceedings during that year are fattened with an unusual number of Finance Committee re- i ■ports, the pronouncements and advice of various officers, and the newspaper reports, of discussions .that took place at the many special meeting's that were held to consider the position. It would be impossible, and to no purpose, to give a resume of all that took plaoe in connection with this unhappy x>eriod of the board's existence ; but some idea of what actually eventuated may be gained from a lengthy, advisory, and retrospective report that the Finance Committae prepared in March of 1882. It refers to the birth of the board in 1874, when it was without revenue or anything except power to borrow £250,000 on the security of 100 acres of land then to be l&ulaimed. Some months afterwards it was put in possession of an income — the jetty, pilot, and harbour 1 dues — and these were a little later increased. They were reduce J at Port Chalmers, however, by order of the Provincial Government, and there was little actual increase in revenue, and as the cost of the upkeep and improvement of the harbour actually exceeded revenue, the ■ young board's position was unsatisfactory. The board later erected a portion of the Rattray street wharf, at a cost of £7000, it being understood that it was to be recouped for the outlay by the Government. It was given as payment four acres of land that had actually been a, portion of the original harbour endowment, and later it waa forced to paj r the Provincial Government £12,375 for another portion of that endowment, which the Provincial Government had proposed to utilise for railway purposes. The board's engineer prepared an estimate of the cost of effectively completing the improvement of the harbour, portion of which work was to be undertaken every year, the total cost of the scheme being put down as £611,500. In April, 1879, after taking over Mr Proudfoot's contract, a financial statement waa prepared for the board which concluded by showing that the piobable works to complete the dredging of the channel/ and berthing of ships would require during the succeeding three years a sum exceeding by £93,626 v/hat the board could make provision for. The power to borrow £250,900 having by this time been fully exercised, application was made to "the General Assembly for authority to borrow a further £250,000, but the Assembly reduced tljis to £^OjPOO, in the face of the strongest opposition 5n the part of the board, which was finding the constant encroachment of the railway yards on its endowments both harassing and, from the point of view of revenue, increasingly sen- °"?- ,?;he. comjhittee therefore found that the board had already spent on harbour improvement works £350 000 borrowed money and £7834 13s 4d from revenue, and that for the ensuing- year there would be a deficiency of ordinary revenue to meet expenditure (exclusive of engineer's and works departments) of £6700. The commit! tee recommended the board to proceed only with those works whioh were urgently required; to apply to the Govrnment for extended borrowing powers; and to make every effort to obtain possession of the board s endowments being used by the Railway Department. In regard to the question of increasing harbour dues tne committee pointed out that this depended entirely on the amount received as rentals for its reclaimed ground and its endowments: did it recover the latter and enjoy a corresponding increase in its rentals, it would not be necessary to increase the harbour dues, and vice versa. As before stated, it is scarcely necessary to follow the board through the circuitous route by which during this time it sought to find its way into the pal he of prosperity. Suffice it to say that about the end of the following year authority was given it to borrow * ,f, f " r ™? r hnm of £200,000, making in all £550,000 of borrowed money— or nearly sufficient to meet the estimated cost of Mr feimpson's harbour improvement scheme. , We may now revert to the matter of further harbour improvements. Under the ILble supervision of ifr Simpson ttie, c scheme n« had advooat&d, and which the board n&d approved of in a somewhat modified form, was steadily prosecuted, and the Upper Harbour from yea.i- to year was able to accommodate a bigger class of vessel. Once the dredges had won through the sand-banks of the northern channel and a uniform depth attained, the three machines [ —the old r\ew Era (put into commission in v a -, 1 ? t ! oa by the -Provincial Government) ihe Vulcan, and tho new hopper dredge now known as 222— were engaged in deep- , emng the new channel and the swinging hasm beside- the wharves, while the side dredge and the Priest-man made the necessary berthing depths be&ide the wharves. j lhe training-wall was during this time ex- ! ten-derl from either end to its present terminal noints, and the tidal scour it .created assisted tlie dredges in their work to a considftrab'e extent. j The force of this scour was noticed in 1 1881, when Captain Thomson, reporting to the board on his year's work, observed: I '"The erection of the half-tide wall has directed thp tide on tho same line, and so increased the velocity of the current of the channel as to set up wavf3 heavier ihan ever experienced in that locality. thereby indicating such a scour as will be very eftrctivp in keeping the new rhannel clear " Thr> low-water dotjth of the Victoria ('bannr>l at thp end of ]881 was 15ft. and, mi reporting ro il.'tt pffoct. the board's Mgneev thus o\ui o«'-d hnj.sclf:— "II is £>rohfvmsr to know that ilio antici- ; paied resuh" from the fxerytjon s-o far of the woiki fonruined in fhr> of ha"hour :>ni>"o\ foment orinnal'v pr. nouridfd }■>.• vo b">pn satisfactorily borne oi't by threvenU of tip 'at'pv end of tl— y>ar ; .mul >r )«i .1 r-citoip indication th- f . given c<c-t»r.(J,->fl borrowing- iio.vpv (lip inirorhif-i-'-.n to I)-ii»-»din of \ "*-<■>!, f-vf|inni'pp: Pc-t Ch2lr.lT-> is n nii^'or of c\ i-N =<)'ut; n an'! r">," £"r "H ■lts!i*' > :«'li " Th-» ir- ui>.,nn,--t u i>.,nn,--t r. ! ■ oit;-!-; j,t ii ]n . ~-> vo iu;io < .i t! at i! " i''i">*s. iftrr [ 1 .Miin-G 'Xi j I'? ." rhaiT-M. " fn:in<l no n'-s' -nz-ri -1 to -.!,.[,,/» n ,;l, v , ::..], r^fl-v- 1 I"? ]4f 1, -- -i i-.k". in P..nrdip." Al ! : !'•( *.■: -- ! ' '-'-' c vr? i\ t'rat had then ' <

Seated to Punedin. was .the barquentina Fairley, drawing "13.2 ft. The largest vessel to enter the harbour in 1881 was-tiie Peter Stuart, which had a draught of: "20ft 4iri. The following year (1882) the s.s. Sonrentd, drawing. -21ft, crossed .the ba^and.jmosfc of the "tea and 'sugar-carrying, shipa-^rom *the East, drawing 13ft land 14ft, discharged afc Rattray street whaff,_thuB_ aayiagfc-r freight and the cost of^ handling. Early drt;lBB2. i the board lost the services of Mr D7*"4i- -. Simpson, who, since the date 1 ' : on ~Tt hid come into existence, had acted as its engineer. Mr Simpson was given a Herculean task— ope that well "mfghfc have frightened most men — namely, that of formulating and commencing to work out a scheme of harbour improve 1-'1 -' ment. He was not asked to specify a work . that might effect a temporary improvement in the harbour that could be carried out during the first board's term of office : instead with him lay the onus of suggest* ing a policy for the first and all future boards, and to plan a harbour improvement campaign that would, from year to year, benefit all parts of the harbour alike, keep pace with the rapid growth of the city and province, and so operate that it must culminate after- many decades of work that was economical and at the same time immediately of benefit to those concerned, ia the creation of a harbour fitted to be one of the four chief ports of New Zealand. How admirably Mr Simpson performed this rluty need not be detailed : the state of {■ho harbour to-day is sufficient evidence of his great work. He was succeeded by Mr G. M. Barr, who proved himself as valuable a servant of the board and as capable and farseeing an engineer as his predecea« "> or - -^ From ihe date of Mr Barr's appointment as engineer the board concerned itself more vrith the question of deepening the entrance than with the deepening of the Upper Harbour. It was evident that before long, so successful had the works prosecuted in the "Victoria Channel been, the wharves «.t ■ Dunedin would be accommodating tha 1 largest vessels capable of entering the harbour: in other words, that the size of the ships calling at Dunedin, and, in a less important degree, Port Chalmers, would be governed by the depth of water on the bar. So Mr Barr, reporting to the board on the harbour generally towards the end of 1882; paid special attention to the question of improving the entrance. It is interesting to note from one of these reports that the inner bar, a. ridge of sand that extended across the channel between Harrington Point and the Maori Kaik, had between 1872 and 1882 almost completely disappeared. Where before mariners had found at this awkward bend only a depth of from 15ft to 18.fV there was now an average depth of 30ft, and a likelihood of more than that. The removal of this awkward ancl dangerous banjs by natural meanjj wal a tremfcndous boon to the Jiarbofi? aulhorittes. ahd 'texvded to give, ' pne faith in the old adage "The Lord helps thoWL who help themselves.^" It was, therefore, to the lower or ouft^s bar that Mr Barr particularly directed! attention. The least depth between Taiaxoa Head and Port Chalmers at thie time was 23$ feet, and the average depth wu very muoh. more than that. For com4 time prior to the dale on which the engf- . neer reported, the new dredge, "222," hod • been engaged on the bar, but the engine^? . waa not satisfied with, that. " While r«£- *" commending the continuance of dredging on the bar to meet present requirements^ ~ I must point out to you the small likelihood of ever securing a dopfch across it such as will be required to have the Otago Harbour accessible at or near low water to the deepest draught class of vessels by dredging alone. I assume that what is done now should be done for all time ; and that as a standard nf depth we should not be satisfied with anything less than will readily accommodate the largest merchant vessels presently in use. The draughts of the P. and 0 steamers and the Orient linere range from 20 to 25 feet ; and, to satisfy the conditions of these there should not be lees than 23 to 25 feet on the bar at low water." Mr Barr proceeded to point out that the greatest depth in the north channel waa 20£ feet, but, as before noted, the north channel, which wound round the end of the bar close to the north 6hore. was only navigable under the most favourable conditions, and the line of the leading lights was right across the bar near the Heads. The whole scour of the ebb tide was through the north channel, being thus deflected' by the eand ridge that constituted the bar. The engineer, therefore, proposed to build, at a. cost of £88.000, a. rod: training wall, high tide height, from the northern shore across, the north channel to the bar, to a point in a line with tho le-adinsr lights, and by this means to force the whole scour of the tides on to a limited part of the ridge. By thus harnessing 1 the forces of Nature, and directing them for his own purposes, the engineer hoped 1 , with the expenditure of some thousands of pounds in dredging, to ijain a minimum depth of 23 feet on the bar The practicability of these proposals was reoogn ised by the board, but before they could be adopted the approval of the Government had to ba obtained. The Government deliberated over Mr Barr'a report, and th«n submitted the whole question to Sir John Coode, the eminent English pngineer, for his opinion. Sir John had been in New Zealand in 1878, and*, a.t the invitation of the Harbour Board, ha<l inspected the whole of Otago Harbour and reported upon Mr Simpson's scheme of harbour improvement, generally approving of it. He went very fully into tho questions laid before him by Mr Barr, and, while fully approving in the main with that g-ent'^ijiaii's proposals, he urcred that the rubble wall suggested should start from tho point nearly opposite Harrinarton Point, nnd from there run out to where required on the bar. He- ako stated that the arre&tfst improvement cou!<l only be :u:hif>'-iyl by another training-wall running from Taiarca Head, wh''ch uouVl n\;> tonally assist in cov.tentratinior the tremendous s<--onr available, and <lo away with tbe f negations in iho d<>pth of water at the w'r-in^. Ts«w>. said £ir John, wore the opinion* set forth by him in hit* reports of ]BPO OiP v->* now r^ror!'";ie on August 17. 1883k ,i'icl lif* 6a.w no i**ason vyhv^ ho sh/Mi\l «lt"r thm. It U -roi-">b!p, how-o\-x-. 1}..-.* tli- d-i-jt,".],!) ."n Hs report in'!'*-.^ .1 tlv, »;-?r,l in riflr tllfl ao ti on i« ,»W- '-It i--l rph- iv, ac '.!.-,l that, 'vi, <f tr- «-.-^.-i . nrnn a !o-^ c«"nrof. as I v>, % -, ;,.-,,; },> rvt^,.- cc i t<? P f- O ; n t^ & ;v; v - \ ]"•■!' in th- f:ii: oxtojit th.-t may !'^ " ,' r " : t ~ in £],„ fjf.Vnt '" ', '*"-'* >'/-(ii: n --.r -,!",louo f <>.J!v f>fFe/-t r.-'CJi a jro.u mirrcvomont ao would

amply justify the necessary expenditure, more especially in view of the fact thai it would not, in the slightest degree, interfere with. $0 subsequent carrying out of tbp completed design." Having the qualified approval of Sir John, uiode, »nd the urgent and reiterated recommendations of its engineer to proceed with the construction of the training-wall, the board took action. The engineer's strongest argument was the bar itself, which, as soon as it w-as deepened by the n«w- tjredge (which, by the way, had been obtained largely for this purpose) to 20 feet, ehoaJed up within six weeks to 17 feet. In August of 1884 a numbe* of prisoners, oqmmeno&d tie construction of the. raihvaypfrom the quarries from which the^otono was to r be, obtained. The first pile, i^, the -staging was driven on the 22ndSeptember by.^Messrs Gray and Co., who had 'the . contract for the labour of the 1 construction, the^ material being supplied by the. board under- ot&er contßacte. By the begipTJUjis of January th^ jeilway was «o far advanced, as to allow tW first load of etorio to be tipped 7 from; Jthe^stagingv on the 17th -of that^fton|h, I .by. the,,' end of tno_,fol|^w&igVij£ontli "iihp first 500 feet of stag-ing was completed^, the stone wall being carried outj along '"with ifc as the' railway Vras Ia1&. Two r quarries were opened ont, and tJteifW wW^thue plenty of •tone of a euitabfe'T&i^d."* During the remainder of the year" the work progressed safctsfectoHly, Atid on the 2lsfc December, 1885;' 1372 -feet s ' of sttme wait had been laidV .During- the Sams' tftae 15g6 feet of ~pites -bad beeif 'clfi-^sh, 'and the superstructure finished to a'lenVth of "1416 feet. Tb» fhfet'Jength of~4Bsfeet waie conetrucjtedl hy^Mseeriy Gray » afcnd' Go. 1 at £8 6s ' pier foo*V<t>h&>tetdßd fcf 'SoKf«S6 hy Mr Hornby at JBS-'lfi fid per foot ; the third of 990 feet by Mr Hilgendorf at £7 9b. The material was supplied by the board under other contracts. In 1866 Messrs Jackson and Co. built the- fourth section of 990 feet at £7 Is 5d per foot. Oh' the 2nd November, 1887, the staging of this waJl was out to 4088 feet, where it was Stopped. Its total eoa* was £22,000, or £23,000 less than the estimate. Shortly afterwards the stone wall was completed, the total co3t of the whole works beiti* very considerably under the engineer's estimate. The effect of thU training-wall on the bar was exactly «s expected. A terrific scour was directed on to it, and before, long th« result was noticeable in an increased depth. All this time, o f course, dredging went on steadily in the Victoria Channel, in Koputai Bay, and in the vicinity of Port Chalmers and Dunedin wharves. The tra,inuig-wall beside the north channel in the -Upper Harbour created a scour which maintained the channel and deepened it in Parts, and at the end of 1883 vessels drawing 16 to 17 feet of water commenced to Tisit Dunedin. Among the latter were the steamers Te Anau and Manapouri, and tie barques Thurso ard Mataura. At this the board commenced, in order particularly to bring in the vessels of the ever-growing and enterprising Union Company, to spend £50.000 in deepening the channel to 16 feet at low water, in dredging the steamers' basin to a similar depth, in extending the half tide wall along the Tn'Stnni 1 * CJl a n o«l. in providing s he<is (4,8000), and to extend cross v-harf At the end of 1884. 400- feet bf wJiarf. was built northwards, from" the end of the «attray street wharf by Me^em' Sutherland/ and Co. . - • > In 1883 the Harbourmaster tCaptaia ' William Thomson), who • had been Appointed toL- hiV position by the Provincial Government in 1859, retired, being succeeded by Captain Jamea Maefarlane. The ■Harbour Board has always been fortunate in possession of' loyal, capable, anJ trustworthy officers, ac instance Messrs D. L. Siinpecn'. G. M. Earr. J. L. Gillies, D G- Sfcepjvems, T. Hj Eawson, D. M'Callum. and the present engineer (Mr Mason), and, m & oomp^.ny so distinguish^ Captain. ~ Thomson's name takes a prominent place. While he did not. like Messrs Simpeon end Barr, assist in formulating big sononies for the- g-massai ii»proT«m«nt of the port, h:s ; intimate knowledge of the harbour, his *buity-as am or*ranisor, and the eminently Ofieful-and practical nature of any suggestions he had to make, made him a valuable colleague of those two well-known engineers. Caofcain Thomson is to-day a in srhlT- respected resident of Port Chalmers. ' During 1885 the Vulcan and 222 were ' engaged dredging in the Ticiona ohanne!, and a. eomparieon wa3 made by the engineer of the relative cost of drec'gincc by tv,-o eystems. The hopper dredgo carried its spoil ouUide the H<?a<]s at a cost of Is 2d per cubic yard. Iho Vulcan, tendered by steamers and bar^e;. deposited jt ( ; dredged ', ma.tsria,l on to the board's ccdownnents at ' a cost of Is 7.7<1 pci yard. As a set-off to tbe , extr » oost wn« t;l.<s fa^t that la.T£;« irsao were being reclaimed, which pic\cd a fruitful source of revenue. The result of the constant vrork in the

harbour became every year more apprecii able. In 1885 vessel's drawing 18ft freely entered, and the s.s. Arawa, drawing ' 23ft 6in, crossed the bar. A slight improve- ' xaent was noticeable every year after this. In 1893 there was 14ft at low water in the Victoria Channel, and for the first : time one of the R.M.S., the Kaikoura, made Port Chalmerß her final port of departure. She left Port Chalmers on December 10, 1892, drawing 24ft 4m. During 1692 633 vessels arrived in the port, their total tonnage being 437.254. In 1899 the- effect of constant dredging had brought the minimum workable depth in the channel to about 17ft at low water, thus giving admittance to ships drawing 20ft to 21ft, end at this depth the channel practically ia to-day. Mr D. G. Stephens (Inspector of Works), reporting in 1891 on the condition of the ■ bar, stated ihat as a result of the scour created by the training wall, the lea<*t depth 'on the sand ridge was from 24ft to 25ft. ■ As_ this hjad been largely brought about whale the waII was in its unfinished stale, ■,c Mr Stephens thought the result highly i <M,tisf&otory, and concluded :—" I think that we may, therefore, conclude that the once troublesome- bar is practically gone." The next important work done was near Harrington Point, in the Lower Harbour. The saodspit opposite the point had been creeping southwards, promising to form another bar, after the old inner bar, and it was thought advisable to cut a chanael through nearer the north shore,' which gave •hips a much straighter course, and one . not co near the dangerous Harrington Point. Some years later — in— l9Q2— the board decided to build a training wall which would maintain the channel in this place, and straighten it in a manner calculated to give the greatest benefit to shipmasters. It had been recognised that there was, a tendency on the part of the gandspifc in this place to creep southward*, and the board's engineer saw plainly enough that were this shoaling up action not neutralised by the concentration of the tidal scour by mea,L« of a training wall, the chaiineJ ra this place would be so affect-ed as to be a source of enormous expense to the board. A quarry was opened up and equipped with steam crane, sidings, and trucks, a stone loading jetty *.*«i erected, and the rubble was conveyed in barges to where it was required. This work wa» proceeded with during 180+ uixit-r the supervis.on of Mr J. Blair-Mason, who succeeded Mv Rawson ou the latter"s <ioath, and was .presently completed. Its prosecution will be long remembered by reason of a blasting accident which occurred dui\';g i the board's visit of inspection to the work--, j by which Mr F. A. Joseph, the Otago Daily Times i-epiesentdtive. was killed, and a number of other members, of the party injured. Ail these years the work of reclamation Lad bson. 6teadily going on, with the itssiiit that the board, leasing the reclainK-d lands year after year, was m receipt of a eieadily-increabing revenue. In 1905, for instance, the board's returns showed that it received from its leclaiiued land, lea»_d, £9700 per annum; tha.t on the foreshore at Du2i«din and Ra\<jnsbGurnc there were 4fc acres not lca&ed ; that the land partially reclaimed and not leased amounted to 310 stores, and that its endowment at the head comprised a grazing run of 580 acres, let for £35 per annum. Ever since 1861, when > . reclamation work was first senou/sly com- ' • menced in. the vicinity of Bell Hill, it ( has been steadily prosecuted, with the result that the board's rent roll annually mcreiio&a. Those who belong to a jour.ger gau^.itjou facarcely realise what an enormous amount of work has been doua m this correction. In 1850 the waters of the harbour came up to a line about equal to 'iliat ;io\v occupied by Oa.stle and Crawford street*,, and the \cry first wharvc & erected — one at Pehchet Bay, one at t'np foot of Stuart street (its site now occupied by the " railway yards, one at the termination of Sat tray street, and one at Jetty streetextended little boyond where the present wharves now eiul. Where once were tho mud fiats and v.aW* of Pelk ;l iet Bay, tlieie are now stretches of dry ground a-nd excellent building sites, and a similar change has elowly taken place at Ravcp«bourne. The board's first proposal was to reclaim some 80 acres at ths head of Dunedm Bay. in ih-j direction of Muasclburgh. but this , was e\entualiv abau-Joned in favour of reclaiming a £>eat poition of the foro^hore behinrl "the. i.larvei and Pelichet and P.avpiisbourne Bays. As may If sup;)Oscd, macli of the Imd -o reclaimed has been utih'aed by t'-.^ R.ul'.sav Dpr-^ rfHl " nt f° r ''" p->;rpc-e=. a<i<! tho V>oai-d has iewwl with . much d! c sa;i^fac ( ;o!i ihi= gradual encroac.'i- . ment upo'i it.s i^\f iiiu 1 urodiK mg- pnc]<j<v- ' men f M^rlTi rp:i<;iied a fri--i'- in 19C5. , when th? R.uhvav Depart mfnt i roDosed to 'ake ee>en o-.of^ ho.g-^ of tliii land PtlLlie and pr^ss mndv» i'lo •stro»ir r p«t po^^ible nrotest3. nacked indi^r.ation meeting* were held, ar^d a deputation 30 strong (repre>

seating all parts of the province, and bearing wilh thorn a petition signed by 21,CC0 people) interviewed rhe Prime Minister in Wellington. As a. result, the Railway Department's proposal was abandoned. Sineo the oarlv eighties the board's financial position has always been more or less satisfactory, and it is so now. Under the skilful guidance of Mr Gillies it weathered a very stormy period, and ro that gentleman's ingenious management is due fhe plea.«anfc state of things to-day. Mi Gillf©s pa&se-d away in 1897, after having g-ive-n nearly 25 years of his life io the board. The memory of his zeal, uprightness, and high sense, of dujty will long remain with thesß who had the honour of his acquaintance. He was succeeded by Mr T. H. Rawson, who- performed the duties of spcmfcarv, treasurer, and engineer. Ho died after six veara' service, and was suci ceeefced by Mr Mason. 1 It is interesting to note at this stage what Las become of the dredges. The New Era (aptly named) was, at the end of 1902. converted into a steam hopper bsr£e, and she is now the Priestrnan grab. The Vulcan, which has done an inconceivable amount of work in the harbour, was in the late , nineties converted into the sand.' pump ■ which at present Hes at , the end of YLctoria wii*fr£, -l&ei"i>k present pumps' on to the ,*ec}fl^aation, are-a. fall silt accumulating near the> wharves.- s.Tid ajso a- srreat part of thp dra-lgiß«g. whirh aro deposited bes.ide her by the other drfdges. She i« .khprfor^ still doinsc nn eminent useful- work! nnd is mrt of one. of the test systems of that could well be* devieed. The 222, obtained from London in the e«u-lv mqrhtips. and the <W, recently ouroha-sed 1 from Ttmaru at a cost of £$K)0 now do the dredging work necessary in the Otago Harbour. ,