HARBOR BOARD

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2955, 14 September 1882, Page 2

HARBOR BOARD

The ordinary meeting of the Board was held to-day.‘, Present—Messrs F. Archer (chairman). T. W. Hall, W. Evans, K. F. Gray, A. Mee, T. Teschemaker,- E._A. Barker, R, Turnbull and His Worsoip the Mayor. CORRESPONDENCE. -• ' Correspondence was read as follows : From the Eoad Boards in South Canterbury re co-operating with the Board in the matter of taking a poll for authority to raise a loan of £IOO,OOO for the completion of the Harbor Works. All _ agreed to co-operate except the Waimate County Council, who desired to see the Bill before deciding. From the manager of the Meat Preserving Works, asking for a remission of wharfage charges, pending the alteration of a by-law, on the ground that a local industry was heavily handicapped by the charge now made. From the Defence storekeeper advising despatch of a gun and other stores per s.s. Stella. . ■ • T. THE N.Z. MEAT PRESERVING COMPANY’S APPLICATION, Mi T. W. Hall moved, and Mr W. Evans seconded—“ That Mr Balfour’s application be . acceded to, and the Secretary be instructed to prepare alteration in by-law accordingly; the concession to be from this date.” Mi" K. F. Gray urged that any concession should date as from the beginning, of the year. • Mr Teschemaker opposed the concession on the .ground that it would furnish a precedent. His Worship the Mayor suggested that the Board should be guided by the Wellington by-laws in the matter. The motion was carried. BURIAL OP THE DROWNED SEAMEN.

Mr Poole wrote protesting against the bodies of certain drowned, seamen not being laid side by side. ' During the discussion on this, His Worship the Mayor remarked that many subscribers to the Relief Fund had ceased subscribing as soon as they learned that it was intended to , use public money for the erection of a monument. i

It appeared from the explanation of the Secretary and the remarks of some members, that the appeal arose out of the feelings of the boatmen and others who labored under the impression that their comrades had been slighted by tha separation of-bodies.' ■ It was decided, after farther discussion, to* refer the matter to the Cemetery commissioners. TIMARU BOATING CLUB, The club applied for permission to erect ways for launching boats, near the Breakwater. The permission was granted, subject to the approval of the Harbormaster. WATER SUPPLY. The Borough Council wrote suggesting that an employee of the Board should be told off to look after the dispensing of the water to the shipping. A discussion arose as to the charges and the whole matter was deferred for the present. HARBOR BOARD BILL. A letter was read from Mr J. H. Sutter, M.H.R., (dated Wellington) justifying the provisions of the Bill taken charge of by him, and specially disapproving of the representation of country districts by town residents. It appeared from one of the clauses that the Crown could at any time take over the lands of Harbor Boards. Mr Teschomaker reminded the Board that the Crown could only take such action if the Board should prove itself incompetent to manage the affairs of the harbor. Mr R. A. Barker—Wo were said to have done that a few months ago. (laughter). Any action in the matter of the Board’s lands arising out of the discussion, was deferred, pending an expected visit from the Hons Mr Rolleston and Major Atkinson.

THE TUG-BOAT TITAN. The towage rates and tag boat staff were considered. Mr Hall considered the rates in the scale submitted too low. Mr Evans said the Committee desired to popularise the boat among the shipmasters. Overcharges would cause the ’tug to be avoided by the shipping. It was shown that the staff cost £4BO per annum. MrILE. Gray urged the adoption of the rate suggested for the time being the Board’s by-laws was not the laws of the Modes and Persians. His Worship the Mayor said there was no occasion to fix five miles as a towing limit, it was an absurdly long distance, twq and a half miles would be quite enough. The Harbor Master made sundry suggestions, by memorandum. Mr Evans was surprised the Harbor Master 'should suggest amendments. He was present at the Committee Meeting, and he agreed with the Committee at the time. There had, perhaps, been some button-holing. His Worship the Mayor—l hope no member of the Board will talk of button holing the Harbormaster. It was finally resolved on the motion of Mr Barker, seconded by Mr Teschemaker—“ That the report re tug charges be adopted with the following alterations :—Distance not to exceed 3 miles instead of 5 miles at discretion of the Harbormaster; rate for towing to sea, £1 10s instead of £l, and shifting vessels, £1 instead of 10s., those rates for vessels up to 100 tons.” INFORMATION TO SHIPPERS AT HOME. The Secretary was instructed to prepare a circular for transmission to Lloyd’s giving full information as to present safe condition of the port, Mr Teschemaker undertaking to obtain full publicity for it in England. ACCOUNTS. Receipts for the Landing Service for August were reported In gross, £639 lOd; nett, £199 2s 3d. The sum of £2946 18s 9d, covering general Harbor accounts for the month were passed fop Enent. Accounts for,the Titan wore over. Lauding Sorrioo aoooaats

were also passed, amounting to £439 18s. / , '■ j The follotying reports were read at ! ( he! meeting:— i ! LANDING SERVICE REPORT. The Managcr'bf the Landing Service reported as follows : “ I have tlio honor to report that during the month twenty-one vessels have-visited the; roadstead. The tonnage of goods, landed and shipped at the service amounts-to 3780 tons, for which the gross earnings are £639 Os lOd, and "the nef £199 2s'3dr • “AU the surfboats ordered from Messrs John Anderson and Co., have been delivered. I have had one, of the old iron boats, which was in very bad order, hauled up. It is uow undergoing repair. On August 19 the top, clutch on. the winding drum of the engine broke! I replaced the clutch with one that I bad on hand.” engineer's report. “ I have the honor to report that during last month, the weather having been very favorable for work, the contractors were enabled.. to complete,7sft of tbe mole, making 120 ft of the wharf contract. Wharf contract No. 4is proceeding.! This contract should be completed in another month. The wharf widening contract lias not yet been begun. The delay is caused by the non-arrival of timber}- which is now

expected daily. Mr John Anderson has delivered two more surf boats, completing his contract. They have been built in accordance with the specifications. In accordance with, instructions to submit plans for a cheap pile jetty connected with the.landing service, so as to facilitate despatch and cheapen the present expensive mode of landing and shipping, I-herewith submit two schemes No. ,1,. colored- -yellow in places, is a pile jetty, extending from the front of the landing service, and parallel to'the boat-ways, n distance of 430ft,t0. about 12ft oif wafer at springlow tide. The cost of this will he about £3OIO. This scheme has the merit of being adjacent to the landing service, but on account of its great length it is costly, and When the foreshore is reclaimed this work will be wasted., In No. }2- scheme, shown red on plan, I propose to extend a jetty, for the use of carts, at-right angles from : the wharf, to a distance of about 150 ft, to about 12ft of water at low spring tides, and to provide access for carts to this jetty by. reserving the--portion of the wharf to be widened, extending from the proposed jetty to the shore. From the extremity of the wharf I propose to build a retaining wall in a straight line to the sewer mouth, and to reclaim the‘enclosed land. By this means ample accommodation will be provided for traffic. A portion of this reclamation (about one-third) will be on land that Government claims. Cost of this work will he :—Wharf, £1,500; retaining wall, £950 ; clay deposit £550. Total, £3050. It is probable that the clay deposit may amount to leas, as no doubt material may be got for nothing if any excavations were carried on in town at the time. The scheme has the advantage of the works becoming of permanent use. A useful reclamation will have been , begun-,- and the jetty will be the breast-work of the future reclamation.” harbormaster’s report.

The' Harbormaster reported as fol lows :

“In addition to my. letter dated at Lyttelton the Bth August respecting the repairs to tug Titan and which was read at the last monthly meeting of the Board, I have the honor to further report that as the works have proved more extensive and the cost having considerably exceeded expectation*, I purpose laying before you the following facts as the entire reason for the extra outlay. The Titan has never had a. sea-going certificate since she came to New Zealand, therefore she did not need to be kept up with the requirements of the Act .for such classification. Why she was compelled to bo equipped and fitted for it after the Board purchased her I cannot tell—this matter rests with the marine authorities at Wellington. It is very certain that no one connected with the vessel, either before or after she was purchased, ever thought that she would require a sea-going certificate for towing vessels in and out of Tiinam; when it is a well known fact that this vessel was working the West Coast 1 bars ’ for over three years with only a river certificate, while employed in the passenger trade fts well as for towing purposes. The Titan underwent a thorough overhaul at Dunedin about two and a half years ago, when the sum of £2500 was laid out on her. The cylinders and condenser were reifaored and she received then new boiler, new pistons, new piston rings, new safety valves, new boiler casing, new funnel, besides a re-setting of all the machinery. The hull did not need anything doing to at the time. Since the above was done, the vessel has been kept constantly running, and with the exception of cleaning her bottom she has had no repairs of any kind, therefore it is not surprising that she did want another good overhaul; The Government Inspector of steamers was very persistent in having everything done that he thought fit, and also informed the engineer of thesyessel that the machinery must be thoroughly overhauled, as he did not consider Tim'aru a safe place for repairing a steamer, if she was to break down. This particular department (machinery) was reported in good condition, and I believe it was so. But at the same time, now that the bills for the repairs have come in, it will be seen that; fully one-half ‘of the .expenditure is in the engines department, for which I did not make such allowance. lam glad to say that the tug Titan is now in first-class order, and will cost the Board comparatively nothing, for years, except cleaning her bottom, about twice a year. The shell of the vessel is very strong and thick plated. She is very handy and the machinery answers very quickly, I feel quite confident that the Board have a good boat and cheap, also that she will answer all the requirements of our port, fully as well as a new boat at twice the cost of the Titan, In fact I know of no tug boat in the colonies of her size and power that would give better results. I beg to recommend that a marine double cylinder steam wipch and donkey boiler be procured and fitted on board the Titan for the purpose of both lifting and laying down moorings, I consider that a great saving will be obtained by adopting this plan of utilizing the Titan. TOWAGE KATES. . I consider that the following minimum charges should be adopted in the towage rates :—Shifting small vessels, £1 ; Towing to sea, £1 10s. This is for getting up steam to do the work, but in case when the steam is up and a small craft wants a removal which will only occupy a short time, then the work might be done by agreement, or at the discretion of the Master of the Tug boat.

The uniforms for the life boat crow are expected to arrive this week, when the practice will be resumed. Your Recommendation do experiment with oil, to calm the breaking seas, will be duly attended to at "the opportunity, which, of course, must be oo a rough day.

I beg to report that I sounded the inner harbor on the 12th inst.-‘ By referring to the record .book o| soundings you will see that! tlie bottom near the wharf is not so regular, and that it is getting shallower near'to the wharf, especially at the outer end of the old wharf where it joins, the new part. At the moorings there is no perceptible difference in thedepth of water. *'