TIMARU HARBOUR BOARD.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVI, Issue 16227, 24 March 1917, Page 7

TIMARU HARBOUR BOARD.

ANNUAL MEETING, The annual meeting of the Timaru Hrbour Board was held yesterday. Present—Messrs F. J. Rolleston (chairman), O. E. Stickings, J. Bitchener, N. Francis, J. J. McKeown, G. \V. Amiitage, R. Thow, and R. Skinner. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT. The chairman, in his report on the operations of the, Board for the yeai, sated, inter alia, as follows: 'f ho ordinary revenue . and expendi>ire for the year is as under : Expenditure.— Harbour expenditure £17,786, interest £16,645; total, £34,431. ~ .., ,'-./•... Receipts.—Harbour revenue £24J500, rate £7835, total £32,335 ; leaving a debit balance of £2096. In addition to this debit balance, the general account, owes, to >the dltterent funds various sums for interest as shown in the last annual report. Against this, however, there is due to the general account for capital expenditure the sum of £3501 as shown in the last annual report, so 'that it would oo correct to say that wo can begin tne year 1917 whir a clean sheet and without having to carry forward any debt. Ho quotetl figures to show that the trade in"1916 totalled .137,170 tons, as compared with tons in 1915. The value of'the-trade in 1916 was £1,479,380, while in 1915 it was £1,907,483. The coastal trade," valued at about £700,000, was not included m thesev figures. In 1916, 316 vessels had visited the port, and in 1915* the total was 340. The number of steamers that visited the port from British and foreign and intercolonial ports in 1916 was 34, as against 61 in 1915, a. decrease of about half. Only one ship arrived herefrom Home last year bringing direct imports. The exports of frozen mutton and lamb in 1910 ir+nhed 698,689 carcases, and ;iu 1915 the total was 913,948. Wellington in 1916 sent away 1,425,170 carcases, anci Lyttelton 1,084,463 carcases.

Continuing the chaW-man said- The. fib rinlfage Of revenue shown above is, as

far as I can make out, comrrfon to most of those Harbour Boards in the Dominion who have not raised their shipping dues in consequence of the war; and so far as the coming year is concerned I do not see at, the present time any hope that there will be any improvement. The great shortage of shipping tonnage is bound to lead'to still further economy in the time taken r oy ships, in obtaining cargo, and this means that fewer ports will be visited by the regular Home liners. To give an iostar.ce'of what is taking place "our export of frozen mutton in the year 1911 wai practically the same/as'it'was in the year -,.1916; but whereas in 1911 this cargo was distributed over 31 ocean-going steamers/ in 1916' the same cargo was distributed over 'only • 13 steamers.; The result: is a considerable loss in revenue to the port. So far as the-coming year is concerned'! hope' th.6 Board will be able, by laying up dredge "No. 350," and possibly the "Taniwha" _ also, to make both. endsmeet, but ■ it 'may - ■ be necessary before thp end of the year to revise our* shipping and port which are. in many instances lower'than those of other ports. T do not think, that any increase should be made in the harbour rate, but that the first thing! to be done towards increasing the revenue should "oe to bring our port and shipping dues into line with those of other .; porta. i/.ln regard,to the dredging, it is satisfactory to find that ""although dredge '-No. 350" has been laid up for nearly- the whole of the year, the depth of water in the ' harbour and outer channel is still maintained. This experience shows that it will be quite safe to lay the dredge up for a further ler.g period, and so save the great expense which has hitherto been incurred every year. Since dredge, "No. '350" commenced operatioiis in the harbour in 1907 a total sum of £85;898 3s 4d has been expended in dredging, all of which has come out of revenue. Hie present soundings in the outer channel, which give a minimum depth of 24 feet to 25 fefit at low tide, show ample water for all our requirements, and the saving through laying up the dredge should enable - us , to get through the vear without making any increase in our'port charges. -During the year a valuable report was presented by the •engineer showing the various sounding in the harbour and surrounding water J't is, .very /important that'with n ii artificial harbour, accurate records

should be kept showing the depth of | water from year to year, and therefore' I would suggest that these soundings he. taken every year, instead of periodically j as has been the custom in the past. J The sinking fund, which was established when our new loans were floated, now involves a contribution of £3329 every year from our revenue. The money, together with' the resulting interest is being kept closely invested, and allowing ?or the amount to be jpaid to the Sinking Fund Commissioners on Ist , January, 1917. there is now a sum of j £9150 to the credit of the Sinking ! Fund Account n The eastern extension mole was well tested during the year toy two ~ very heavy seits, and 1 it is satisfactory to learn from the engineer's report that very little damage was done. The experience of these storms "encourages us to Jiope that the amount of ymaiflstcnauce required on this work in future will be very slight. No works of any magnitude have been tmdertaken owing to the abnormal conditions prevailing, and it would be advisable to defer any further schemes for the harbour improvement until more favourable conditions arise. The Board will have to face the expense of extensive repairs to both No. 1 and No. 2 wharves.' Fortunately we have a wharf renewal fund 'amounting-ft) over £IO,OOO, which can. bo legitimately drawn upon for this work, so that any work in the nature [ of reconstruction neec! not necessarily come out of the ordinary revenue <of the Board. The staff in all departments havft earned out their various duties with zeal and ability: and I express : the earnest hope that before another | year is ended the stress-and anxietycaused by the present conditions may have disappeared. ' '* ,' The chairman, then moved the adoption of the annual report and balance sheet, and in so doing he made some recommendations for improvement in the method of keeping the accounts; suggested that soundings should be taken in the, harbour every- year: and that the cost of wharf renewals JShould cc.me out of the wharf renewal fund. He thanked the members for their hearty co-operation ancTassistance during the year. The Board were feeling the effects of the war more .than any other local body, but they had done their 'cesb to carry on in the adverse circumstances, and they could only hope for an early return to rimes* The balance sheet |'had beerf. received back from the '.Government auditor certified to as correct,' and without any. "tag." Mr Skinner secondedj the adoption of tho report and balance sheet, and the motion was carried, it, being - a-z'.ced also that the recommendations of the chairman be adopted. ' THE' SINKING FUND. Mr Armitage, as one of the Sinking Fund Commissioners, reported on tl.e Board's sinking fund. As a of the year's work they had fund of £9150. In four : years', timq_ it would have grown to about £24,'000, and would grow much more rapidlv in ihe future than in the past, as were receiving a larger amount of interest on their investments, and the interest was ea.rninff interest. They we r e now earning £SOO a year in interest; in four vears' time the fund would probablv be earning £llOO or £I2OO -interest. The money was earning slightly over 51- ner cent., whereas the Lybte'con Harbour Board's sinking fund' was ■ 4 per cent. The Tinrwu Board's fund being a new 'one they hnd had the advantage of the higher rai,os of interest. All thernoney was ■mrindly invested on mortgage of freehold p>-o-rtorties, and' the best thanks- o-f ihe Board''.were due to the 'ch'nirnisin for the" rreat care hn had exercised i.i 11'0 investments. (Hear, hear. 1 )' ' THANKS TO CHAIRMAN. Mr Skinner moved a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Roiieston for his courteous and able conduct of the business dur'ug the year. It was-a pleasure to be a member of the Board under existing circumstances. (Hear, hear.) Mr J.-iitelicner seconded'the motion, and heartily endorsed Mr Skinner's re- , marks. jl'jio nutun was carried unanimously, and Mr Roiieston thanked members for what he termed their too flattering ' remarks. ORDINARY MONTHLY MEETING.

I The monthly meeting of the Board was then held. [ i , CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT. ' The chairman made sympathetic re- ' ference to the death of iur i<'. W. Marchant, who was at one time engineer ; to the Board, and to the death of Mr ; A. H. Turnbull, of Christchurch, formerly of Timaru. He referred to the visit of the hospital snip Marama, and ! to the fact that during the month they had had a visit from the biggest vessel that had ever entered the port—a vessel 30 feet longer than the Athenlc. She had taken away 59,233 carcases of mutton and 4963 quarters Si beef Dredge "350" "had left for "Port Chal-

mers, and when she returned her staff would be reduced to captain, chief engineer, fireman, and diver. The other members of tho staff would have no difficulty in getting other employment perhaps more remunerative than their present employment. When the dredge was recommissioned the dredge hands would : all be given the first chiice of then-old jobs. The debit Previous meeting was had been: Ships' dues £770 2s 7cL war loan certificates £l2 9s 6d, rents £l2] 14s Sd, wharfage £I4OB 4s 7d, hire or crane £l2, sundries £l6, licenses £2 re.hind'cost of dismantling crane £?0 &-° f ™ leepers £2 ' l2s > a total of lhe accounts to be passed that day totaled £960. The debit afte, , paying the accounts would be £39.29 { 10s 4d. The new Board should set up j up a committee to put their shipping j dues on the same system of, levy as obtained at other ports. There were anomahes m their chrges whicli should 1 ceitainly tfe revised. This -would be < the last meeting of the present Board ' and he sincerely .. hoped .that at the election on April 25th all the present members would ho re-elected. Mr Francis said that for bona fide renewals on the wharves they should certainly draw upon the Whaif' Renewal fund, which would continue to bo fed as in the past.

CORRESPONDENCE.

The Wristport Coal Company applied tor a, part reluml of tu© . ncunsu. paia for their hulk at Timaru, winch hat) open removed to 'Wellington.—Left to chairman.

Pile .National Efficiency Board wrote asking tiiat the Harbour Board's engineer or other responsible officer, should furnish a special report dea-iino-with -any matters that would tend to mcrease the efficiency of the district,. It was specially desired that the report should deal with maintenance, upkeep, and repairs; new works that might be put now in progress; and proposals for new works. It was believed that in many cases the labour of women could replace the labour of men. It was anticipated that in many cases the wives or other female relatives of men in the Second Division would be willing to undertake the work of the men when called up, and the Board would like to know how far this could be done in the work under the control nf the Ti'mani Harbour Board. The chairman said that the Board had anticipated this circular and had

reduced their staff to the irreducible minimum. Mi - Stickings said they could go a little further and reduce the staff on the dredge to a caretaker; they should ; not keep on one man -yvlio could be done without. A long discussion took place on the best means of - reducing the dredge staffs, Captain Tait and the resident engineer being present. Einally it was resolved that the staff on the ,dredge be reduced to three. f HARBOUR MASTER'S REPORT. The - harbour master reported the arrival during the month of -February qf.' 20. steamers, Iwith an aggregate of 21,278 tons, and the departure of 19 steamers, with an aggregate of 11,078 tons. RESIDENT ENGINEER'S REPORT. The resident engineer reported that immediately after last meeting" arrangements were made lor docking "No. 350," and she left here on the 7th inst. and arrived -at Port Chalmers the following morning. After the top gear was taken down the vessel went into dock on the 13th instant, and after the Government inspector and Lloyds' surveyor the work that was essential was decided upon. When he, left Port Chalmers the work was well in hand, and the cost should be well within the estimate. The dredge should be ready to sail early next To make up the crew of '-'No. 350" he had taken three men off the "Taniwha," and this vessel was laid up m in the meantime. To allow more room for berthing the larger vessels at No. 1 wharf, the buoy between this wharf and the end of. No. 2 wharf was removed by : the "Taniwha," and some dredging had since been done here At the inner end of No. I wharf four of the back piles had been secured..at the foot with concrete,-and four had been refitted and' fastened. Some minor repairs had been done ,-to the crane at the fish wharf. Repairs to the "Taniwha" were in hand. The metal for forming \the south end of Fraser Street has 'oeen delivered, and 10S sleepers from the s extension sold. l

GENERAL

The Board decided to pay half the cost of a drain, 100 feet, an concrete, necessary in Fraser Street where the N.M. and A. Company are about to erect/a store, the Borough Council, paving the other half. The total cost is 'estimated at £2BO. Tho ■'. chairman announced' that Mr D. C. ■Turab'ull would be a candidate for his former seat on the Board. He had not intended to stand again, hut had agreed to the request of the Board to do so. . :