TIMARU HARBOUR BOARD.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13863, 27 March 1909, Page 3

TIMARU HARBOUR BOARD.

monthly meeting

The monthly meeting of the Timaru Harbour Board was -held yesterday. Present —Messrs J. Craigie (chairman) F. J. Rolleston, G. "\\. Armitage, C. Bowker, R. Tliew, K. Skinner, T. i). Young, C. H. Besley, J. Chisholm, Manchester, W. Hayman, C. N. Orbell, and F. ii. Smiui. CHAIRMAN 'S STATEMENT.

■The chairman reported that the creditable balance 011 February 16 was £B2-4 Is.lid.. The receipts had been, ships' dues £1270 7s Id, wharfage to January 30th, £1264 15s 2d. The credit balance at last was £l9O 7s sd. The accounts to be passed at this meeting totalled £2057 His Gd, together with £3l 17s sd, commission charged by the Railway Department. This would leave a credit after paying the accounts of £635 15s 9d. Of* the 1905 loan £26,300 worth of debentures had been sold, leaving £23,700 still .to sell. • There was on fixed deposit, £6141. Mr Craigie said tnat members, would regret to hear of the. illness of Captain Clarlcson, who had been confined to his house for over a week. It was to be hoped that the rest would hfe beneficial to him and that he would soon be filling his place as harbourmaster again. (Hear, hear.) hi the meantime his place was being filled by Captain Tait. —me. criticism on the Board's annual balance sheet and other matters had appeared in the " Timaru Herald " since last meeting and he had considered it his duty as chairman of the Board, to reply to these criticisms. The correspondence had been fully before members 'bi the Board. The chairman referred to the question of wharfage on Government goods (referred to elsewhere); and mentioned some other matters dealt with in. the standing committees' report, and the engineers report on wliarl' repairs. The contract for the erection'of the new wharf had been signed in October last yet no start had yet been made with the work. The resident engineer had cabled to the contractor at Sydney this. week to ask him whether ho intended to go on with the work, and a reply had been received stating • that the timber would be sent by the first steamer and a start made with the work at once. ; The contractor had experienced some difficulty in getting the size of timber required, and he had cabled asking if the specifications could be slightly departed from, but the engineer had replied that no departure from the specifications could be allowed. , As instructed, the engineer had. been taking sounditigs in the' channel and basin, and lie had prepared a chart showing the depth of water at the different places. The dredging at the entrance was necessary, but there was a long elbow towards the north which, though it had been marked out for dredging, was not ill the track of steamers, and should not be dredged—in the meantime at all events. The track ol' tlie steamers was more to the south. (Mr Young said this was one of the advantagees of the eastern extension, steamers had not to go so far to the north now as formerly.) Continuing, the chairman said that for the present they should content themselves with dredging in the track of the ships. Captain Clarkson approved of this. The question of superannuation had been discussed by the standing committee, and it had been decided to leave it to the new Board to deal with. With. regard to the slipway for launches, the replies as to cnarges made at the other ports for these, had hot been received from several of the Boards, and until fuller information was received, it was not proposed to fix the charges here. CORRESPONDENCE.

' The Shipwreck Relief Society, Dunedin, asked for a yearly grant, and £3 3s was granted. D. C. Turn bull and Co., as agents for the s.s. Ripple advised on March 19th that she would bo discharging sheep, and suggested that the wild daisy on the reclamation north of the Moody ■wharf, be burned off before she arrived, otherwise! there was every chance of the seed beeing spread througnout South Canterbury by the sheep.—The secretary had replied that a track, 100 feet wide, was being cleared. The secretary of the Harbours' Association of New Zealand wrote further on the matter of the Local Authorities Superannuation Act 1908, inquiring at what stage of consideration the Board had arrived in the matter, and asking whether they approved of the proposal that the Harbour Boards should combine to establish a joint scheme. A suggestion had been made that Municipal Corporations, County Councils and" Harbour Boards should all combine and inaugurate a joint scheme. The Board were invited to express an opinion on such a proposal as joining in a general scheme of this nature. STANDING COMMITTEE. The standing committee made the following recommendations: —That the town members be authorised to accept a tender for lease of section 19 Eraser street. That the secretary, engineer and liar-bour-master, be allowed two weeks each year, the holidays to be allowed to accumulate for two years, if desired ; the dredge-master and sailing-master of dredge 350 and master of dredge Taniwha be allowed two weeks and the remainder of the staff (one week, each year, but these holidays not to accumulate.

That the wharf repairs proposed by tlie resident engineer, be proceeded with, by day labour, the specification for the necessary materials to be submitted to the next Board meeting.

That subject to the approval of the harbour master 'the dredging of the outer channel be altered according to plan 134. Referring to the holidays question, Mr Chisholm objected to the Board allowing the holidays to , accumulate in the case of certain officers. It would be unwise to allow any of the officials to be absent for a month at a time. Mr Tliew took a similar view.—Mr Orbell said the Board should guard against more than one official being absent on holiday leave at a time. —-The secretary said they never went away together. On the motion touching the holidays being put to the vote, Mr Chisholm voted against it for the reason stated above. Mr Manchester thought the proposal to do the wharf repairs by day labour was open to question, but it was replied that the engineer thought it would be better to do the work by day labour as it was not a straightforward job. A contractor would allow a lot for broken time, while if done by day labour the Board could utilise the hands employed all the time at different jobs. Air Thew spolce in favour of day labour, and the recommendation of the engineer and the committee was adopted. The other recommendations in tnc report were adopted. HARBOUR MASTER'S REPORT. The harbour master reported the arrival during the month, of 26 steam vessels of an aggregate tonnage of 44,706 tons. The weather during the month had been line with smooth seas. ENGINEER'S REPORT.

The resident engineer (Mr F. W. Clarke) reported that: Contrary to expectations the contractor has not yet made a start with the new wharf. If satisfactory assurance is not soon re-

ceived that he intends to push on speedily with the work, it will bo necessary for the Board to take action as empowered by the conditions ol tue contract. ' ' The repairs, etc', Eastern Intension Mole were completed with the exception oi' a few places that require altogether about 25 trucks of large stone. As the blocks available now are not large enough lie had stopped the train anu paid off nine of the workmen, and will bring the balance down when a shot now°being prepared is fired. The mole is completed to the lull height (1* feet 6 inches above 11.\\ .) lor a distance, of 280 feet from tlie shore end. Dredging.—Since last report No 350 has removed 25,000 tons. Tlie output is not quite so good as usual, and this is accounted for by the fact that the dredge has been working close inshore oil the north berth at the new wharf, and as the ground is very rough, and many large boulders were encountered, operations could not be carried on so speedily as there was a danger of coming in contact with the reef. However, the dredge has now completed this inshore cut, and should show better returns next month. From the outside channel 4000 tons were lifted, and for the future whenever the weather permits, the dredge master will devote more attention to this part of the dredging scheme, now that the new wharf site is nearly completed. Tlie Taniwha has been working at the main and Moody berths. Soundings.—Soundings were taken all over the inner harbour, and extended out side in the vicinity of the outside channel. General work had been filling and levelling section 19, making up part of roadway off Hayes street at Parr's, and maintenance repairs to wharves. The following special reports were submitted : WHARF REPAIRS. Moody AMiarf. —Now that 30 feet berths are being adopted, the outer piles in the wharf are not deep enough to give the necessary stiffness to tliis structure, and new fender piles on portion of the old work are required to replace a number that arc badly worn by chafing, etc., and also to stul'en the structure. Later on it may be necessary to drive a lew raking piles in the new portion to stiffen it when the north berth is deepened. All the kauri braces are eaten through with the sea worm and must be replaced with hardwood braces. Some of the kauri deck beams will require attention later on, but this can stand over until the new wharf is available. The

estimated cost of stiffening the new lender piles, and .bracing is Main \\ harf. —Must ot the softwood decking for a length of about 400. reet requires renewing with hardwood planking, and the caps and girders under this portion of the wharf have boon there for about 25 years. A number of them are defective, and these should be replaced with hardwood timbers. A large number of the w-almgs also require renewing. ' With regard to tlie piles 1 have every reason to believe that they are in a good state of preservation below the water line, and will last for a number of years. The piles under the water >■ 1.1 examined by "the (liver some little time ago, and he reported them to be in good condition. Some that I lifted from the face of the wharf a' few months ago, with the exception of the sapwood, were quite sound. The estimated cost' of putting the wharf in good ' order for some vqars is £3IOO. DREDGING. To complete the dredging inside to 30 feet below L.W.O.S. tides will require' the removal of about 430,000 tons of spoil, and to give a depth of 2G feet at L."\V. in the outside channel about 300,000 tons will have to be lifted. Taking the quantities dredged in 1908 as a basis, the completion of the deepening scheme will take from 2.1 to 3 years, working a single shift. Tin's does not make allowance for any silting that may occur ill the meantime. After the hard clay bottom is dredged to the required depth any silt that may accumulate can be much more economically removed than the present material. The quantities as shown by the soundings compare very favourably with the dredge tonnage, the latter being 323,915, whilst the soundings show about 304,000 tons, a little over 6 per cent. less. There is always a considerable divergence in the quantities measured in situ and the hopper output in dredging operations, and the above results may be regarded as fairly satisfactory. THE OUTER. CHANNEL. Tll accordance with the Board's in-' structions to report 011 the suitability of the present position of the outside channel now being dredged, I desire to say that I have gone into the question with the harbourmaster and others, and the general opinion is that the channel is rather too much to the north, and that it would be much better suited for navigation to keep it further south. Vessels coming in or leaving the inner harbour always do so in a more direct course, and never go so far to the north, as indicated by the channel

as laid down 011 plan 70. My own opinion is that it would be an improvement to keep the centre line of the proposed beacons further south about 150 feet, as shown on the accompanying plan- 134. This would give a good direct course for making or leaving the inner harbour, and a channel of the dimensions and position shown would provide an easily navigable course. By adopting this channel there would be about ] 40,000 tons less dredging required. I think it would be advisable to establish temporary beacons on the proposed centre lines of the channel now proposed, and the masters of vessels and the pilots, after coming in and out on these lines, a few 'times would then be in a position to give information as to whether the channel wa's most .suitably located for navigation purposes. All the reports were, adopted. SALARIES AND WAGES. The Board went into committee to consider the question of revising the salaries' and wages, but jt was decided to leave the matter over for the new Board to deal with. THANKS AND APPRECIATION. Having concluded its business for the day, and this being the last meeting of the ' present Board , the chairman thanked members for the way they had supported him during his two years in office as chairman. They had got through the business without any great friction, and attending the meetings had been a source of pleasure to him. On the whole they had got along smoothly, and he hoped that the work they had done would redound to the benefit of South Canterbury. The members of the Board were all good representative men, and he hoped that they would all be re-elected. Mr Manchester proposed a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Craigie for the very satisfactory way he had conducted the business of the Board. He had been an exceedingly good chairman, and while he had given members freedom of speech, he had never attributed unworthy motives to any of them. He had very great pleasure in moving cordial vote of thanks to Mr Craigie. Mr Thew endorsed all that Mr Manchester had said, and seconded the motion. —Mr Skinner also ailded a few words in appreciation of the chairman, who, he said, had been courteous to members and had shown a lot oi tact in the conduct of the business. The meetings had been very pleasant. During the past two years they had scarcely heard ,an unpleasant word spoken, and there had been 110 attempt to defy the cliair. —Mr Bowker, as the proposer of the present chairman, said he was very pleased to find members of the Board so satisfied with Mr Craigie, who had proved a really good chairman. —Mr Besley said he spoke as an opposer of the prese.ut chairman when he was first elected, and he could say that contrary to his (the speaker's) anticipations, Mr Craigie had proved a very good chairman. He had a good grip of the .business —a better grip than one would expect a man coming on io the Board for the first time, as Air Craigie had done two years ago, to have. The vote of thanks was carried unanimously, and Mr Craigie acknowledged the'compliment paid him, The Beard then rose.

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