PATEA HARBOUR BOARD.

Patea Mail, Volume XXXIX, 24 June 1914, Page 2

PATEA HARBOUR BOARD.

Special Meeting. A. special meeting of the Fa tea Harbour Board was held on Monday afternoon, Mr P. W. Grainger pre. siding. Messrs Barton, Oorrigan, Death, Dickie, and Oapt Johnston were also present. The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed, The report of the Reserves Committee was read. The report reoommended that the question of. rental payable by the Patea Farmers' Oo op. Freezing Ooy. for the Harbour Board's reserve be submitted to arbitration; The opinion of Messrs Halliwell and Sellar on the matter was read, Mr W. D. Powdrell, Ohairtmn of the directors of the Patea Farmers' Co-op. Freezing Ooy:, who wag present, stated thai it was the intention of his company to erect buildings of a permanent nature which would result in the Company's business being considerably increased and the Board's business as well. The upset rental of £4 per t»cre spoken of by the Board was, he submitted, not meeting the Company in a fair way. He ventured to say that no two members of the Board had been over the section in question before they had fixed the rent. Oapt Johnson said Mr Powdrell must admit that the report of the Committee was <i fair one. There was no need for the Reserves Com* mittee to inspect the land as the Board had already fixed the upset rental. Mr Corrigan said he would like to suggest that the Board consult with Mr Powdrell thee and there and endeavour to fix the rental without going to arbitration. Mr Powdwell -Baid what he complained of was the excess rental asked from men who were carrying the institu'ion on their backs. Mr Corrigan said he felt that if the Board would agree to a rental of 60s the company ought to be satisfied. Mr Powdrell said that the company was prepared to go up to 50s and no more. Rather than pay more they would prefer to see the rental fixed by arbitration. He was certain if it went to arbitration the Board would get less than the 50s. Mr Dickie s&id be would like to see the company make a good bargain. He himself was helping to carry part of the £25,000 liability spoken of by Mr Powdrell. but members of the Board had fo consider the trust reposed in them. Capt Johnston said he was inclined to accept the offer of the company of 50s and he would move in that direction. Mr Dickie said he would second Captt Johnston's proposition; Considerable discussion took place for some time with regard to the Board's legal poei ion in the master, the_ former resolution of the Board arbitrarily fixing the rent of the Reserve in question at £l6O being first rescinded by the unanimous vote of the Board. The amendment by Capt. Johnston was then by leave withdrawn and the report of the committee was then adopted. It was also resolved that the chairman and Mr Barton be authorised to sign and seal the necessary documents in connection with the deed of covenant and surrender of lease on the part of the company. ' The Chairman explained that the Company's architect proposed erecting a building over Trent Road. A right of way would be allowed for so that the road would not be obstructed. It was decided that the Board do not object to the right of way as at present suggested. The Chairman next reported on his visit to Mr MacDonald the Board's Engineer at Qisborne as under— Report. At the request of the Board I visited Gisbome with the object of interviewing the Board's Engineer, Mr MoDonald, re ooiamenoing work on the harbour improve, ment Boheme as early as possible. Mr MoDonald read over his draft soheuie whioh he has fully prepared witbtho exception of costs whioh he cannot estimate pending receipt of data which he has asked to be supplied to him. Inter alia Mr MoDonald's report contains the following :—" That steps be at onoe taken to improve the river from the bridge to the entrance by removal of snags and sand pumping and where required blasting."

The above rooomtnendation Mr McDonald urges should be commenced immediately, the sooner we begin this work the better. With this object in view, I inter viewed Mr Langlands, who has had considerable experience in suction dredging, having initiated the dredging sobeme in connection with the very extensive reclamiticn of the Napier south swamp lands work requiring a great deal of experimenting with different olasses of pumps to oarry to a successful issue. Mr Langlands made an offer to equip a soow that he has been using using for contract purposes in Gisborne, with the neoessary pump to his own design, fit snagging gear on board with neoessary boiler etc and deliver at Patea The pump is of speoial design of vane, suitable for sand or small rubble pumping and he assuros me would be capable of lifting quite a good lump of stone or hard papa.

A scheme of this kind is what we want to maintain our port until we get the main part of the heads improvements completed. I asked Mr Langlands to put his offer in writing whioh he promised to dc giving full particulars of the scow and plant therein, and as Mr Langlands has had considerable oxporienoe in these matters I should thinkjhis advice on pumping can be accepted by this Board as correot. There can be no two opinions on tho point that the more water wo can get into tho river by removal of Bnags. dredging of sandbanks and where possible the removal by explosives of substances too hard to pump, that by these moans we will help considerably to improve our entrance and tho navigable channel thus adding to the safety and the reliability of this port for steamers.

As already mentioned Mr McDonald has his report all drawn up complete with tho exception of the 009 t also the plans except to certain details whioh he oannot fill in till ho haa tho date asked for re soundings. He gave mo an instance of the necessity of this data being supplied in Gisbome's work when incorrect data was worked on the data boin» a total of some six feet out depth to rook bottom with the consequence that a contract of 200 ft wall extension oost the Board £2,000 and the contractor £3.600, the data relied ou being that given some yntv's.huck as correct by a Government Department. Mr McDonald requires the data re soundings to enable him to closely estimate the cost of construction work, so

(hat he can advise the Board on the way in which the loan money oan be expended to beat advantage. From the foregoing remarks it will be seen that the sounding from datum point to Band and to rook mast be got with as little loss of time as possible, even if the Boird requires to hire a good double ended surf boat for this purpose. As already mentioned Mr McDonald read me his full draft report and from which I gathered he had a full knowledge of the Boards' position financially and in other respects He baa therefore modelled his report to embrace such improvements whioh, when eventually completed should enable the port to be worked at low water or at any stage of the tides by vessels drawing say nine feet. Of course the comprehensive scheme may not be accom. plished for many years to come, but it Bhould always be held to be the ultimate aim of the Board, and all works done should be part of the comprehensive sohetne and steps in that direotion. With this end in view, Mr MoDonald has mapped out work that in his opinion will be a part of a complete scheme, and at the same time give the best resultß for the expenditure inourred. At the present stage he does not therefore propbae that the Board expend out of loan the sum of i"30,000 for an up-to-date dredge, but that it will most certainly be required in future years to deepen the channel for working at all stages of the tides. Tho position to be faced immediately is (1) that we appoint a Keaident Engineer as there is plenty of work for him to do. (2) Get to work at onoe on snagging the river from the bridge to the beads thus increasing the tidal oapaoity of this area and making navigation safer for steamers. (3) Ab soon as the required data re soundings is available and specifications are drawn that tenders be called for the work specified. The Board should consider the scheme proposed by Mr Langlands and if necessary arrange for the inspection of the scow etc and that full details as to the performance of the pumps be supplied etc The following offer of Mr Langlands was read for a scow with pump, and all necessary machinery for £2,900 — As requested by you to put into writing our offer to sell to y«ur Board a dredging and snagging plant complete, we hereby submit the following schedule of plant. The Scow •'Era," a timber vessel in A 1 order-aod of the following dimensions :—Length 77ft, main breadth 24ft 2ia, depth ia hold from tonnage deck to ceiling at amidships 3ft sins, round at beam 3ins' The vessel has a carrying capacity of about 100 tons. We used every care when baying the vessel and enclose copy of certificate of inspection to bear this out. Since purchasing the vessel we have made extensive additions by installing a powerful friction steam winch, —one forty-five pitch pine derrick with wrought iron fittings. The derrick is run on ball bearings and will stand a lift of twenty tons. The foremast carrying the derrick has been completely stayed for heavy lifting.

We have used this vassal in salvage operations at the wrecked steamer " Star of Canada " aud have also used her in recovering heavy anchors and cables that have been slipped in the roadstead here. There is ample deck room for installing the sand pump, boilers, engine, suction pipe and delivery pipes to side of vessel. The sand pump that we undertake to instal will be a ten inch centrifugal, made to our own design, the plan of which we enclose. The pump to be driven with one high speed engine, coupled direct. One boiler of the locomotive type. All steam pipes to ba of copper, The pump, engine and boilers to be all under covers We undertake to deliver the plant in first-class running order at the Port of Patea for the sum of £2,950. The whole of the plant is open for inspection at the Port of Gisbome with the exception of the pump and that won Id have to be manufactured. If your Board entertain this offer we will give a complete schedule such as anchors, cables, lights and all the necessary gear that a sea going vessel has to oarry to comply with the New Zealand Customs.

Certificate of inspection made by Messrs Bailey and Lowe, Shipbuilders, Auckland.— " April, 1913. This ij to certify that our Mr W. G. Lowe has made a very careful inspection of the Scow " JSra " and he finds the hull to be iu first class order and repair. The vessel is as good as new, haying had a most extensive overhaul two months ago as the following will show:— New beams and deck?, all new rigging, and nearly all new sails. He considers that you have a first class vessel in every respect.—(Signed) Bailey and Lowe," Mr Oorrigan said the firafc thing the Board had to do was to open up the channel. They might then have to construct a dam to sluice the river out* ' The Chairman said there was no doubt the dredging was going to help the port considerably. Oapt. Johnston said it might be best to delay consideration until the Engineer was appointed. It was decided to defer consideration, of the report till the next nneting of the Board.