Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1906. JACK'S POINT v. TUAHINE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10692, 16 May 1906, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1906. JACK'S POINT v. TUAHINE.

The Hon. Hall-Jones ia Minister for Marine, and Jack's Point is m his coustituency. It is, therefore, perhaps, not surprising that Jack's Point is receiving 6ome" little attention from the Marine Department. A year or two ago there was installed there a >niall lighthouse, with a lamp and lantern somewhat similar to the ill-fated apparatus that was plumed on Tuuhiue' Point, neax Gisborne. Complaints were made there, as here, that the light was an insufficient guide to tho port, and Mr Hall-Jones has not lost time m having it replaced. We learn from the Timaru Herald tliat "the new apparatus, which 5 arrived last month m the Gothic, is the hist of its kind m tho colony. A shutter m tho cap works automatically up and down, and alternately there is a ten seconds' obscurity, and then a flash of light for the same length of time. The distinguishing effect is given by the regular alternate obscurity, the lamp burning all the while. Tlie apparatus and mechanism are on the most, up-to-date principle, and of English make. The light will easily be visible 14 miles at sea, and should prove a boon to masters. Mr Scott, the Marine Department's mechanic, came to v Timaru on Wednesday last, and is now fixing the light, a work which will take several weeks. 'The cost of the apparatus alone is between £300 and £400. This light will be another factor m the ensuring of the safe approach to the port." That is all very well for Timaru, Tjut what about Gisborne? When Mr Hall- Jones travels home he almost invariably goes by railway train, and has no need of a lighthouse. Tlie same remark applies to 99 out of 100 travellers to and from Timaru, whose shipping trade will not compare with that of Gisborne, where everybody avlkj goes and -comes, with few exceptions, journeys by sea. Turning to the Blue Book, we find that m 1904 the entries, foreign and coastwise, at Gisborne totalled 521 vessels of 526,768 tons, whilst at Timaru the arrivals were 3§9 vessels of 423,363 tons. Now, the great proportion of traffic ia the lattcr^<port is a daylight traffic, whilst ships awive m j Poverty Bay roadstead at all hours of the day and* night.. The masters of ves'.sels do not care to attempt to make a small break-water harbor, such as Timaru, situate like a dot on a long extent of; coastline, after dark, and tlie light at Jack's Point will not make them do so. As a coastal light the Jack's Point light is not nearly so valuable or necessary as ; a light at Tuahinc Point, which is required to warn mariners of tho hidden

dangers of the Ariel reef, as v.t-Il as tf beckon them to the sheltered walc;s <j our bay. Yet Timaru liars been iavou.. with a lighthouse, and Gisborne's requesi ( for the replacement of tlie lamp at Tw - hine lias been quietly deposited m one of the dusty pigeon-holes of the Marine Department. The matter is one on which the member representing this district m the Ministry should bestir himself. He knows by the bitter experience of a perilous night at sea what need there is for such a beacon at the entrance to Poverty Bay. and how great a boon, it would be to shipping. We wonder, also, that tlie Shipmasters' Association has not raised an agitation on the subject. Those ol its members who trade along this coast complain constantly of the absence of tho light, and we are sure that if their influence were brought to bear through the Association it would not be long before the beacon on Tvuhine was Teinsta'ttxl. saving the mariner many an anxious hoar, and giving to people who travel to and from j Gisborne by night a much greater mea- ; sure of security than they have at pre--1 sent. I