LOCATION OF LIGHTHOUSES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3018, 17 January 1912, Page 65

LOCATION OF LIGHTHOUSES.

EXPLANATION BY THE MINISTER. WELLINGTON, January 11. The objections put forward by the Shipmasters' Guild to the location of the new East Coast light on Castle Point instead of Flat Point were commented upon by the Minister of Marine (the Hon. J. A. Millar) to-day, official reasons being given for departing from the shipmasters' recommendatoin. " You cannot get elevation enough for the light at flat Point," said Mr Millar, "and vessels would be courting danger if they went in towards the coast to look for it because of the outlying sunken rocks. Most of the local shipmasters were in favour of Flat Point, but when an examination was made by Captain Blackburn and Captain Bolline, as well as M.r Allport (Secretary of the' Marine Department) and, Mr Holmes (engineer) it was found impossible to place the light high enough to give it sufficient range, but the most serious thing is that off Flat Point at a distance of three- to five miles there are sunken rocks. It is a well recognised principle among lighthouse authorities all over the world that you must never put a light at the back of danger, because shipping, when the weather is thick, knowing a light is there, will be tempted to go closer to the danger until it is trapped. On the other hand at Castle Point there is a splendid site for a tower 100 ft above high water, enabling the light to be shown at a height of 170 ft, giving it a range of about. 20 miles in thick -weather. There is only a distance of about 60 miles between the Palliser light and the proposed light on Castle Point. Each has a 20-mile radius, so that there would only be a gap of 20 miles between the lights in clear weather, and it is a poor master who cannot navi gate that distance safely. The decision to adopt Castle Point was announced last March. It i« two months since tenders were advertised for the construction of the tower, and the whole apparatus for the light has been arranged for in England by this time. Yet objections to Castle Point have only just been made."