TIMARU HARBOUR.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14480, 29 June 1911, Page 6

TIMARU HARBOUR.

■IN THE MAKING. 'V'\ A EEniOSHECT. ;;"-.v.2U» Tunam harbour is always a sub;"fcos oi interest, and one which, at times ,-fe a good deal discussed, and by reason, i: ©£. the fact that there are a. good many to South Canterbury who. : c lEnbw Uctle about the history of the \poxij a,. "Herald" reporter gathered jionM. information from Mr David which may be of general in—' uteres*.', ■ _ Jlr Sfcoart was not prominently '-iSeuriSed- witH Timaru harbour aifairs "■vprior to-June, 1891. The occasion of yii? eofhins* to the fron£ with active was ib» issuing of the reports iis consulting engineer, urgently the lifting; aud removal :-c£ the travelling shingle from the south ?-f?' a of ;12» breakwater, on the plea. ■--pbafc was the solution for ;-. Jfo- trare'iling shingle. Mr Stuart was -.-■sjj*™>« man £o publicly protest against -; *he.ai;option vo£ such, "a course. He . jsainiiiaed that the shingle bank was ; fur/frist friend until it reached the Cnrrey of the mole, that a practical y*o.hx&ion lay in dealing with tie shingle ; «OE»j years later on at that point, and '.experimentally by an inexpensive groin ii ß ' fc . B *ct Island. He expressed! his .;opinions very freely on tine optimistic "Side, urging that the shingle bank proiL%ct«u.: tSie mole and sheltered the ship- , P»S in. rongh weather, and would, : .'•?*??£ on » Erectly enhance the usefulness .or tie enter berths, besides adding a ; J valuable recla-matton withoufcost .: 10 harbowr property. Lifting th« ■hinglo then, he said, meant permanent . jsspctrare dnriirg southerly seas to the breakwater, wharr, and shipping. Tjb» Inner berihs would be rendered as •*• •ecrcre ks the outer-, and the break- . Water would "be weakened and honey- . «»mbeo: hy the removal of its best proHe predicted that tlie sites oa *a» truDped bv the breakwater - SS?^-- m a - ears ' time - be worth - wrta a yesrly TentaTbf £ISOO, ne exhibited a mar. in his office ' ;TEr doT -\ pain's Temee, to that effect. U-ius estimate of the monetarv value of '•■"S® , reclama -ti«i has been verified by I the lapse of time). Mr Stuart also con- ! ' ISS. T. tQat the engineers iiad departed ; Bom the scope of their comraission, in tne alleged cause for dumpln" the tb E£a T" Lagoon. ;Wl ™- of 'restoring natural . eondrtions* to t3ie so-called denuded r beach at Seadown. Thev saw hesaid, ,t prospective danger to private property niiks away, but ignored the real exstms benefit and its extended increase with the sningie that lay alongSide tt-e port. Ho strongly resented ...this departure, and successful!v chal- . tensed proor of anv damage "having been cone to private property at SeaJJevels Road Board practicaUv -^-' t aß|P cd hls views bv sending in a to the Harbour Board shortly He get up a costlv petifcen from 2U. land-owners of the' Levels ■-.. asking then- representatives to : Cielay shrngle shifting ODefations. Later en he induced several well-known men .*P. be nominated on the "hands off the Bhinsle policy. He was one of the candidates ior Timaru, and was chairtSsjL °LQ e Harbour Board for the years. 1893 and 1594. Other membere jrho tool; s. pronounced stand against the tesnore removal of the shingle at tRf f x^~ l ? e^^ es3rs George Stumbles, Jttob Hill, TVaiiam Evans, F. R Flat^ -' §??-' James SulUvan. E. T. Rhodes, R. and A. C. Pringle Later Ot occsrs were Robert The<v, Hobert R. Wreathail. James King, Ajpisres John Fraser,' Tame* '.JgMisa <3ialdfeaii). James MHne gairhe). .Uexarder Mee (Pleasant ■«istj, . and others m iheh- resDectivo ajssncra, ax. good work in snpSortine ; perfctione. etc., and Mr MeenanTmade 5_S? < ? d i , fi 8 !^1 ? contesting (unsnecesstSuy> voa V/aimate seat on tho Board Derma Mr Stuart's term of office pwsissast efforts were mads to get sanction to a scheme to exSsad the atrsiaht portioa of*-hue break-

water beginning at the curve, to enable the crest of the" shingle bank to safely, gather and give shelter to the berth at the end of the Main Wharf. He held (before die Hoy al Commission in, 1894; that prudence deinandfcd that a new extension was reo.vus.t6j to prevent tlie toe of the shingle-bank being swept swiftly round the curve. Tho work was partly to be done out of revenue—borrowing was then unspeakable. He held that ths suction-puinp dredger "Timaru" was able easily to keep the entrance clear of any shuiglo thai would drift round the proposed peak. The .statutory sanction to the scheme was refused. It was defeated chiefly by the introduction of a. counter scheme, for an extension from the extreme end of the breakwater, which Lad much Timaru support. Mr Stuart strongly opposed the counter scheme, on the grounds that it would neither trap the shingle nor shelter the end berth, but that such an extension would bring "the line; of stagnation" within i x "« fairway, and cause the fine silt (held in suspension by disturbed seas) [ to sink and shoal up the navigation to ■the entrance of the inner harbour. | Briefly stated his /theory was—" Guide the travelling shingle into a seaward i area where the suction-nump dredger ; can safely get at it, and we and our : successors, are safe-guarded from ; damage or danger by shingle." He i was the first man to draw attention i to the future danger from fine silt (by over-lapping j, he Bir^^ 4 ' b ? writing to Napier * Sr?i* «& November 12th 1595, respectfully asking his nrofessional eon-' j sirteratton of the Question as involved hi any extension. Mr Bell said: "The advance of the shoals of Caroline Bar towards the entrance, is a feature of ■Wie case which is difficult to deal with, lor the reason that being founded on 'dry land, it will extoaS tt shoaling influence far enough, to involve shoalin<r an round the entrance." ** His term of office was marked by the abolition of wharfage dues on ballast, a ? d °J the erection of a ballast wharf at the North Mole, for free tipping there, and for other purposes. Wool which fiad hitherto only contributed a nominal wharfage rate, was put on a more equitabfe footing, with the result of at onoo. adding £750 to the annual revenue. He had moorings fixed into t ?j- Dreat water, with a view of holding large steamers in the harbour, and off the wharf during southerlv storms. On his suggestion the Board applied ior an Empowering Bill (dropped in 1889), and sot liberty to reclaim when they thought fit, an "area of about 100 acres situate between the elbow of the North Mole, and the south end of the Waimataitai. Lagoon. On his initiative a further area was included. of seven acres of tho harbour foreshore, extending four chains in front of the railway boundarv between the Alain -Wharf and tho North Mole. Mr Stuart attached some importance to these Crown grants aud nnvileges for iuture roads. raalwavs. wharves, and other purposes of income, and especially for communication between ail wharves without trespassing on the New Zealand railway. Reclaiming the seven acres oi shallow, rocky foreshore, met with many passive opponents, and it was not until 1905 that ' reclaiming' was again mentioned at the Beard table The charrman, Mr John Fraser, in his annual report, said:—"l think it very desirable that this area should be reclaimed."

Mr Stuart, and a small minoritv, unsuccessfully advocated equity in wharfage, and shipping dues generally, and to make frozen mutton Day something more than a merely nominal wharfago

_ On the grouDd that real estate had roojased most in value bv the success of tie artificial port, and the borrowed money he, and a small mmoritv held that the interest should be met more by direct taxation on the borrowere' tendvalnes instead of being borne chiefly by ships, importers, and exporters.s. When his term of offoe expired he'declined to be nominated again rather than support the porralar entnjtanee for an extension commencing at the extreme end of the old break" water. Ting scheme was thwarted by the persistent wamiDgs of the encineer-: Napier Bell and J. P. Maxwell What we escaped was seen when much damage was done by the seas drivinj; thousands of tons of shingle against the

curve, a ail ' aerially ' over into the shippnji tliuwiiig, ho said, the initial usi-ksoiiess of ttio pi'oppasd I starting point, ami indicated the true slan.ng point to trap shingle, and prolyl tho harbour. Tho duroago that was done, aud the pauic tliat arose, ! hurritd uo the loan lor a protective ruiibta . wall at the point indicated by tho '.'flying ' sliingle. On the arrival of the.suction dredger in 1894, and proof j of hor iuability to retain fine silt in her I hopper, Mr Stuart suggested an economical way of utilising her undoubted po\yers for dealitig with fine j silt in 'he inner harbour, namely, to I use a floating flexible timber flume resting on and across tho old surf cargo boats, for convoying tho entire discharge from tho dredge spouts through the North Mofe. Tho plan was never tried. In IS9B he advocated an innovation in harbour ndjuncts, namely, an inner 'wave trap' and 'rangebreaker,' to iuberoont the- 'swell ' or 'run,' and loosen its force before reaching the shipping. It was adopted about five years later on, with marked sut;ccsa. When Maxwell's hall-tide wall scheme was first submitted to the public by tho chairman, Mr "William Evans, it met with w.mie opposition in tho press, and Mr Stuart took up the cudgels '■■■> '-vuur of its inception, hut favouring a straight noa-tion eastward. . .\>:-n the rubble, wiilll was laado :>' . •. length of 8000 feet, and ' raised"" ii height. Mr Stuart supported tho purchasi! of a powerful dredger, on the ground that the altered conditions now made it necessary to mechanically maintain, original depths to the inner harbour. When the" site of the North Mole decried by everybody {years after it was built), he defendiod it, savins, that its position defined n sufficiently commodious harbour for the j most sanguine prospective require- | ments of South Canterbury, Riving convenient approaches to, and sites for, future wharves, and that it minimised permanently the dredging area. He unsuccessfully advocated for many years a cross wharf from the " inner end of 'the Mam Wharf to the inner end of the Moody Wharf, with back-' ground reclamation for level traffic between all the wharves. Ho held that during Ktoirms it was more a question of the variety and strength of the j moorings than one of space, or of stillwater .inside, tad he suggested internal improvement*, and another ' rangebreaker.' Tile invisible effect due to tho .stoppage of wave-action and ground-swell upon the area of seabottom sheltered by the hightened rubble wall, can be ascertained, ho says, by comparing the 1909 map of soundings, with that of 1906.

Questioned as to what he meant by that enigma, he said that the four lines of soundings in the area bounded by tho approach '.channel, and the eastern rubble wall, showed an average shoaling of two feet, or at the rate of eight inches per year. Another daugcr signal was that it had shoaled at the same rate in front of tho elbow of the North Mole. Making a harbour presently secure at the risk of its futuro accessibility, wag a grave ovexsi'ght.

And with regard to tlie Board's resolution -to deepen tlie approaoh •channel to 26ft. L.W., the records of Dredge 850 show that from 1907 to 1910, she lifted 433,000 tons, and she maintained the depths of 1907. Dredging is now our mainstay. When-asked for his opinions on the present and future rate of shoaling, hesaid that prophesying was risky, and on tjiis matter veiy inroopular, but he thought that since 1909 to present date, probably on, each side of the approach channel it had shoaled between 1 foot and Ift. 6in. As tho unseen toe of the Bay sands creeps further | north, it may be ' swirled ' into th» fairway at a rate that will compel ai- [ tention He always alluded to the southerly seas as the ' life-giver' of tlie port. Mr Stuart a brood trail -fchrough the press since 1891 on. all matters affecting the best interest* of the port •' ./THE BAY SANDS. On the kindred subject of the Bay sands and its surrounding le was tue first man to suggest beautifying in 1893. By 1897 the public could see that the sands had come to stay, and at the. Queen's Diamond .TubJee Mr Stuart started a voluntary working bee, ilia chief outcome of ivhieh w«& the making of Working Bee Terrace and an embankment. In the map which ho publicly exhibited in 1891, he showed that the sands, which theu only had a thm fringe just under the Tiadact, would m fifty years extend in a half-circle froii the north moid an the "YVaimatartai lagoon. This hasty and lonely prediction is in a fair way of becoming accomplished. The crude map i= still ;n existence. The petition of the Levels land-owners with 211 autographs is in possession of Mr Stuart, and is a perfect hair-raiser. The first nine signatories and a total of a hundred nave beeu claimed by the scythe-bearer. ■ . Looking at the security and despatch given to shii>pin"—the revenue from sites on the shinglebank the prospective value of the inner fcreshore. from which tfo. 3 wharf has been built, and the safety of property on Seadown, Mr Stuart had good reasons ..lor "keeping his end of the P -' til M I Qeovse Stumbles, the builder of the first seution of +he b'reakI water, was closely associated with him | m the foregoing actions and opinions, : and throughout proved himsDlf a tru*tv seco-ider *'