HARBOR BOARD.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10958, 29 April 1907, Page 2

HARBOR BOARD.

.«. _ The monthly meeting of the Harbor Board was held this afternoon at 2 p.m. Present: The Chairman (Mr J. Townley), Hon. Captain Tucker, Messrs Hepburn, W. D. Lysnar, Sievwright, Matthewson, Harding, and Clark. BY-LAWS. The first business taken was the consideration of objections to the new bylaws, to deal with which a special meeting was held. — The secretary stated that there was a letter from the Union Coy., but it touched on private matters.— l he Chairman said it could be taken m committee. — Mr Lysnar did not see the need of this. The press could be asked not to report anything of a private nature. — Mr Clark took the view that a private letter could be of no use to the Board. The Board did not "want private information, and even if it were taken m committee it would leak out. — The secretary stated that the letter was as :o the running of the launch Tuatea, and the proposed charge of 10s per trip, mid was marked confidential. — The Board decided to have the letter read, and the secretary accordingly did this.— Mr Harding said there was nothing very private m the letter, except as to the working of the Tuatea. Mo company carea to disclose their business. — Mr SieyWright thought the Board should try and meet the Company. If the Company reduced their charge to Is, the Board might let the matter of charging 10s a trip stand over. — Captain Tucker did not see that the" Board should meddle with the Union Coy's business.— Mr Lysnar agreed with Captain Tucker, but the Union Coy had* approached them. If the Company reduced their charge to Is, the Board might meet them.— The Chairman read a portion of: the non-private part of the letter, which stated that the Company would be agreeable to reduce the return fare from the ship to the shore to Is if the Board made no charge per trip. The Chairman pointed out that this concession did not include visitors from the shore to the vessels m the bay, but it meant that it would be the means of bringing more people into the town. That was what they wanted.— Mr Clark did not see how matters would be better unless two Tuateas were put on. .At present the launch was always crowded. Further, the launch was the most lightly taxed vessel m the port and had the best berth kept for her. More consideration should be given the lighters who carried on the business which, kept the place alive.— Mr Sievwright did not think it was the province of the Board to tako the place of a Tourist Department.—Captain Tucker was of opinion that as *ne proposed charge oi; 10s per trip was shown to be oppressive it should not he imposed. — Mr Whinray said there n\is his motion on the books that if the Company reduced the charge to Is the proposed tax of 10s be taken off. In view of the Company agreeing to this he moved that it r be given effect to. — The Chairman, said lie was on one of the Huddart-Parker steamers, the Other day, and !)& heard one of the passengers ask what sort of place Gisborne was. "Not worth going to," was the reply given by the captain. Now, that was not what they wanted, for there was as much to be seen . here as anywhere else. A board should be put up .on- -the steamers inform, ing passengers that the return fare to town was Is.— Mr, Clark said the reason for tile remark quoted by the Chairman was that the ships' officers did not want passengers to, go ashore, as there .was not room for them on the Launch.-— The Chairman held an opposite opinion.— Mr Clark said the Board had made a level tariff on all vessels trading here, and now they proposed to take off £200 a year off one vessel, the Tuatea. Was it intended to remit 'Q similar amount from other vessels ?— The Chairman replied m the negative, and after fur. ther discussion Mr WhinrayV motion> seconded by Mr Matthewson, that the 10s charge per trip be not levied provided the return fare for visitors from the steamers be reduced to Is, was carried. — Captain Tucker and Mr Clark voted against, the former objecting on the ground that no stipulation should be made. Dealing with the charges on sheep per head, it wns decided to alter the by -law m reference to this to 4d on rams, other sheep 2d. — Mr Sievwright congratulated the Board- on the lack of 'objections to the charges made. He pointed to the reduction from 5s to 2s 6d wharfage a ton on general merchandise, a reduction that j would not benefit anyone except the mid- j die-man. It would make no difference to thd consumer, and the Board was throwing away revenue. He moved that tlie 5s charge stand.— Captain Tucker said members had relied on .this meeting to make any amendments desirable m the tariff. He thought it Unwise to alter a charge about which there had be«n no outcry, and wlu'ch had adjusted itself. Besides, it'; enabled 'the Board to get at people who did niot pay rates. He seconded Mr Sievwright's motion.— Mr Lysnar said Mr Sievwright and Captain Tucker had n^t attended the meetings, or they would know that this was the crux of the tariff. It was not -correct to cay there was- not a complaint m regard to tli o charge on general merchandise. Not long ago they had a deputation of merchants and business people waiting on them who pointed out tJiat Gisborne was the dearest port m the colony for importers and exporters alike. ; The proposed reduction wns only a fair adjustment. In the past Gisborne people liad shouldered all the burden themdelves, and let 'the ships off practically' free. It was :a disgrace to the Boara that -such a slate of things had existed so long. They had improved the harbor at a great expenditure, arid had allowed the shipping companies to fean the benefit. Gisborne had lost the trade of t lie coast through this very tariff. At Auckland the wliarfage was Is, while here it was ss, a difference of 4s. Local merchants could not expect to get the coast trade until this wharfage charge was reduced. HARBORMASTER'S REPORT. Captain dimming, Harbormaster, reported:—"The buoys m the bay have been overhauled, cleaned, painted, and re. placed m position. Th c beacons m the channel have been cleaned and painted, and all the life-buoys and standards on the breakwater and gioyiie painted. 'J,he lighthouse on the breakwater is now: finished and m use, and will be a great benefit to vessels working the channel at night when leaving the wharf. 'Ihe dredge hag done good work along the town wharf during the last month, but there are several patches of papa that should be blasted and removed as soon as possible. Soundings taken m th© channel On the ,25th inst. with the new tide gauge at zero are, as followe :— End of breakwater 13ft, third • bollard from end of breakwater 9ft 6in Snark's landing Bft 6in, big crane Bft 6in, Waikanae Bft, along wharf 7ft to 9ft. Shipping since last meeting : Steamers, arrivals 43, departures 43; sailing ships, arrivals 13, departures 12." The attached monthly statement as to moorages showed that the various vessels trading her© had been at the wharf a total number of 68 days, of which 47 ■were workinfe days. The moorages collected .totalled £33 15s. . V DREDGE JOHN TOWNLEY. Captain Solvander, master, reported;. "Since your loaf meeting the dredge has been constantly employed, . The amount of spoil taken out is 600 cubic yards of clay from the slip and the hew wharf, 1500 yards, from along the breakwater, being sand and rock, and 2200 yards mud from along the town whaaf— in all, 4300 cubic yards. On the 4th and 6th the dredge was employed cleaning and painting buoys m the bay." OVERSEER, Mr D. A. McLeod, Overseer, reported on the harbor works for month ending April 27th as follows: — "The .soundings ordered by your Board to be taken m the river have been carefully obtained, and are slibwn m accompanying sections 1, 2, 3;. 4, and 5, extending from the end of the breakwater to the angle m wharf at No. 2 shed, and are taken at distances of 10ft apart, both' longitudinal and cross-sec-tional. The soundings indicated by red figures sho\v r the deptlis from low water by the Kaiti tide gauge to the surface of the 'river bottom, and the blue figures from same to the surface of the pupa rock, but the estimated 'amount of spoil to be removed is taken to low water by what is called the Penguin tide gauge, which is lft 6in lower, so that to get a straight channel 50ft iv width and 12ft m depth at low water b} r the Penguin tide gauge between the above-named points, there are^ 13,200 yards of spoil to be removed, which would give an average depth over the whole area of 2ft Bin. Of thisamount of spoil 7750 yards consists of solid papa rock, and would average lft 7Jiri m depth over the same area. The difference m the number of yards between 13,200 yards, bein X the whole, and 7750 yards, which arc rock, is 5450 yards, and consists of loose papa rock, shingle, silt, and mud, all of which, except the papa rock, has cbine down" from the bed of tlie river higher up. The soundings shown m sections on No. 6 sheet from the angle m wharf at, No. 2 shed to the Kaiti bridge, are taken m a" similar way, with the exception that only one line of soundings is taken, but as they! were taken parallel to the wharf, and at a distance, from it of 40ft, I judge it to be a fair average of what the whole width of 50ft would be. This gives the amount of spoil to be removed m order to get 12ft m depth at low water by the Penguin tide gauge at 12,300 yards, 2750 yards of which are rock that will neec^ to be either blasted or chopped. The total -amount of spoil to be removed according to these soundings to get 12ft m depth at.iow water by the Penguin tide eauge, and 50ft wide from the end of the creak water to the Kaiti bridge would be 25,500 yards. "This amount of • spoil could be removed with our present : : plant at the present rajie of progress m eight months, but- while this is so I would not expect it to work out practically m lees time than from twelve to fifteen months. As this will no doubt require some explanation, I will be pleased to give same at your meeting. "The' John Townley has taken 46 loads of spoil to sea this- month, and thesmall dredge has lifted 650 yards of rock and 300 yards of silt, m all 960 yards, which has been deposited on the Kaiti reclamation, also 35 yards of gravel, which was landed on the wharf to be put on the ' roads. '

"The addition to No. 2 Hhed is finished mid made available for traffic. The blasting punt No. 1 is at work at the outer end of the river channel, and No. 3 punt near slip. Progress with the wharf extension is «till much hindered through the shortage of timber." FINANCIAL. The following cash etatement to April 24th, 1907, was presented by the secretary : — Ordinary account, credit £7045 5s sd ; harbor improvement, 1907, debit £2263 8s lid— credit £4781 16s 6d.> Bank : Current account as per bank pass*' 1 " book, £4864 9s 2d; less unpresented cheques £82 12s Bd— credit £4781 16b 6d. Outstanding : Arrears of rates, 1906, £687 3s; 1905, £236 13s sdj wharfages current, £l 9 15s 7d.