THE PORT.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1920, Page 2

THE PORT.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS. RAILWAY REQUIREMENTS. EXTENSIVE PROVISION FOR THE FUTURE. For some time past tho New Plymouth Harbor Board has been awaiting plans from the Railway Department showing the point of junction of the Te Roti-Moturoa line with the main line at the breakwater nd also the land required for the lway yards, as lack of this knowledge iias hindered the board in its reclamation scheme. Plans and a covering letter from Mr. F. W. McLean, Chief Engineer of Railways, describing the lands, etc., under date of August 24, are now to hand. . At yesterday's meeting of the Board, a lengthy letter was received from the board's consulting engineers (Messrs. Blair Mason and Lee) as follows: — It is proposed under the Depiu. ment's scheme to utilise the greater portion of the board's available flat lands, above high water mark, for station and shunting purposes. The shunting yards are shown as a continuous strip extending from Bayly Road to the existing end of the breakwater, and cut off entirely all free access to the water-front, save at Bayly Road, where provision is stated to be made, presumably by over-bridges, to give access clear of the railway tracks. The main station yard is about Ave chains wide, and occupies the greater portion of the area between high-water mark and the present railway line. The total area proposed to be taken westwards of Bayly Road is forty-one and one-third acres, of which 33J acres are. the property of the board. With this memorandum the following plans are submitted:—-No. A, showing the proposed station yards tinted brown; No. B, showing a modification in the [adopted scheme, of harbor development calculated to Jit in with the ordinary railway yards scheme. ACCESS REQUIRED. It will hardly be necessary to enlarge on the extreme importance of having the wharves easily accessible at all times for all classes of vehicular traffic. While it is without question necessary to amply provide for railway connection and facilities at the port, it must be realised that traffic by means of mechanically propelled vehicles is constantly increasing, and promises in the future to outrival the railway for cheapness and celerity of despatch within moderate distances from the. port. It :'s safe to expect that with the reticulation of electricity throughout the length and breadth of the land in the not far distant future, and the general use of electrically propelled vehicles, motor traffic will largely supersede the use of the railway, especially for inward goods within a radius of probably forty miles from the port. With this prospect >n view any fettering of the port by cutting off free access to the wharves is to be guarded against, and the question should receive very careful consideration. j The only access provided by the railway scheme is at Bayly Road. ' This road is but (10 links wide,'and will be quite inadequate to take the traffic both ways of a large future trade, much of which for Taranaki itself will, in my belief, go by road and not by rail. To give better provision it is recommended that the Department should provide for the widening.of .Bayly. Road from 40ft to 99ft, and the through tracks so aligned and arranged that a subway to be constructed by the Department will take the traffic clear of the railway. OVERHEAD BRIDGE. The Railway Engineer suggests that access by level crossing near the head of the breakwater can be given io the blocks of land now under water west of the breakwater. Such provision might do while the trade of the port is small, but must, as the trade grows, be an increasing drawback, as there must necessarily be, besides the risk of accident, the interruption from time to time of the vehicular traffic, which spells extra expense and a perpetual taxing of goods carried other than by railway. To give free access to the said lands, the Department should be asked to provide an over-bridge at some convenient site such as is suggested on Plan B, also to terminate the railway yard opposite. No. 3 wharf. The board is recommended to take the responsibility of making railway connection to No. 4 wharf if evlr it should be needed. It should also be noted that the prolongation of the railway yard Jteyond No. 3 wharf would cut oil' the dock site from the water-front. It is certain that a dock will be required sooner or later, and the alienation of the lands comprising the dock site, it is advised, should be prevented and the lands used for temporary purposes only. The location of the railway yards in the Department's design will necessitate tome modification in the Board's plans of harbor extension. A scheme of modification is shown oh Plan B. The area proposed to be reclaimed between the breakwater and Bayly Roa_d can be extended seawards to approximately low water mark. This arrangement . would give 14.3 acres for store and warehouse sites, and if the portion of the private lands west of Bayly Road edged in blve were acquired, 16 acres would be available. After the present railway line to the breakwater has been closed, the Department might agree to vest in the board the portion edged in blue, opposite the Breakwater Hotel, which, with the portion of the Board's lands to which access would otherwise be cut off by the railway yard, would make a useful block of 1.2 acres. QUESTION OF PRECEDENCE. The only portions of the endowments above high water mark available outside the proposed railway yards boundary, are about 1 1 /'; acres near Bayly Road, and about an acre near the east of the breakwater, but'these are narrow and cannot be of much use until some reclamation is done and the low water mark pushed seawards. It should be noted that the Department's plan is sent in as an outline, and subject to considerable modification in detail. It is suggested that the Railway Department be asked to modify the plan in the manner shown on Plan B and state definitely if the modification referred ,to will ■ apply to alterations in the alignments or extent of the area colored pink on their plan No. 27,862, of 2Slh August, 1920, Mr. Maxwell said that everything had apparently to be subservient to the dictates of the Railway Department. Motor traction, as the engineer had suggested, was apparently fti: nir to be the tiamt- ef .the future, but every tiling Uad

to be sacrificed to the requirements of the Railway Department. Mr. McCluggage asked when the. General Manager of Railways would visit New Plymouth, eliciting the reply from the chairman that it was now questionable whether he would visit Tarannk; at all