FUTURE OF OTAGO HARBOR.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13700, 2 June 1915, Page 3

FUTURE OF OTAGO HARBOR.

The future of Otago harbor aa a deep water port was dealt with by Mr J. Blair Mason (engineer to the Otago Harbor Board) m a paper read to the Otago . Institute.. , .'lt was, .safe: to .postulate-; said Mr Blair Mason, that the port of Dunedin must be prepared to accommodate, tlve largest vessels n float to-day with a reasonable margin for increases m length and draft of vessels. It had been demonstrated by eminent marine architects tliat vessels up to 1000 ft in^ length could be economically constructed, v and that the size of the largest vessels of the t - future would be regulated by the capa- . city of their trading ports. Many p"ort authorities, m: recognition of this con- , ting-ency, were deepening their 'water- Iways and .constructing berths 1000 feet long to take vessels of this class. .The Panama Canal, was constructed to allow of the passage of. Vessels up to 1000 ft long and 40ft draft. The Dominions Royal Commission, "which 1 visited New Zealand m 1913, took evidence as to the prospects of the principal ports of this Dominion being made equal to these requirements* of depth and berthage. One was able, to assure the commission that there would bo nQf-difficulty. m obtaining and maintaining a depth ol 40ft at Yon,' Chalmers when it was wanted, and that when these big ships came along the people of Dtmedin would see to it that tliis port would be. capable of berthing them. Mr Blair proceeded to speak m detail about the possibilities of the port, remarking, inter alia, that it was a deepwaiter port m the making" under circumetau"es that would enable the port au-.-tlii.'r s.of the future to cope with every increase, m tqe size of vessels up to 1000 feet long and 40ft draft. The cost, said i the speaker, of carrying out such operations would not be excessive, and the' expenditure would be easily met out of the board's ordinary revenue. Mr Blair «Lso referred to the Otago dock, which/ he said, was already of insufficient dimensions to accommodate the newer steamers of the Union Company and others, and. it would be a. necessity of the future that the port should possess a larger\dock, capable of taking vessels of any sree, which, as already shown, would have no difficulty m entering the harbor. Harbor improvements at Port Chalmers were carried out to-day on plans that provided) for extra dock and slipway accommodation, and for workshops and shipbuilding yards, which, sooner or later m these new lands, must b<? established.