TIMARU HARBOUR.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13683, 27 August 1908, Page 3

TIMARU HARBOUR.

CLIPPING I'UUM LOA'DOA' PAPER. ; The •* Shipping World" (London) of July 15 puujisncs tue loliowing article, illustrated Willi icpioducud pnoaigiapht, ot tin; harbour citpptied to it uy tlie secretary ol tlio Board (Mr \V. J. BaiUsfciJ: The umtuul report ol the Thuuru Harbour Board lor the year 190? deals with laets and statistics of more than local interest. Of the A'ew Zealand ports, liniaru now holds the third place to Lyticiion and Wellington in respect of frozen meat exports. Tin's position lias been attained since 1904, in which year it exported about half the number of caica.-es that each of these uortt> did, Timaru figures being 575,000 against about a million at each of the others, lu 1907 Timaru sent us 838,000, the tunic, practically, as Wellington, Lyttelton still being fiist with, a million and a quarter. But the latter was less than iu 1906, and Wellington was less than in 19C4; whilst Timaru has advanced br regular stages. Thus it seems destined to come not the third but the first of the meat shipping ports of the colony. It Mould appear that the Board has had some trouble with the A'ew Zealand Government concerning a Kew Harbours Bill, from which it expected special benefits, but which seems to have dealt iii an unequal manner with the different colonial harbours -(we are here merely making inferences from the Timaru report, and nothing we say luusfc be taken in any other sense, for we have no other information before us at the moment than "hat the report contains). The Bill; however, has not been proceaded with, and as the Board is clearly very much alive to ite interests, we may" probably safely leave them in its hands when it is proceeded with, for which the Board is preparing itself. What we are safe to say is that the harbour, as such, is being improved. The main wharf livs now. for almost ils whole length, ihe respectable depth- of. 29ft. L.W.0.5.T., and io being improved ; whilst at the

Moody wharf, of which we give an illustration, there is the same depth for a distance of 515 ft. The Waimate 5,610 tons register, and 420 ft. in length, has been berthed at this wharf. A new timber wharf was proposed at a cost of £11,610, but it was subsequently decided to construct instead a wharf between the Moody wharf and the North Mole, parellel to the Moody wharf but 300 ft. from it. This work* has been completed, but there is still, at insufficient berthing accommodation, vessels having had to wait on several occasions; and the Board is considering what further steps must be taken. Perhaps not the least important item in respect of the port may be found, in the future, in its potential trawling trade. The Government is carrying on experiments. There arc appended to the report a number of statistical tables, of which the most interesting, to ns, is that showing the progress of the: import and export trade of the port in full detail for each year since 1882. It certainty shows a very regular and rapid increaso in imports, a still more remarkable one in respect of meat exports ; and in respect of other exports, grain, wool, and a variety of other produce, a more varied position, but on the whole an improving one. The returns of shipping using the port show a rather smaller tonnage, however, in 1907 than in

the three preceding years, though it has been doubled since 1898. Last year there were nearly 400,000 tons in and out, nearly all of which is put down as coastwise, though that designation includes foreign vessels calling at other coastal jtorts. vr .