MAKING THE HARBOUR.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 11 June 1924, Page 20 (Supplement)

MAKING THE HARBOUR.

A GREAT UNDERTAKING. BIG FIGHT AGAINST NATURE

Courageous, resourceful, energetic and enthusiastic the early residents of Timaru and district, recognising the potentialities of South

Canterbury, saw that a good harbour was something which could not be done without, and in spite of all the difficulties which the unprotected coast at Timaru presented, they set about the construction of an artificial harbour. Difficulties confronted them at every turn, but nothing daunted, they went steadily on with the work, and the deep and safe anchorage, as it is

seen today, is the result of their long and welldirected efforts. It is often said, and said very truly, that the present generation owes a deep debt of gratitude to those men of vision and invincible determination, who laid the foundations of the harbour upon which their sucessors have built.

When the first issue of the “Timaru Herald” appeared, the . landing and shipping of goods and produce was effected by means of a surfboat lightering service. This was in pre-rail-way days, and there was a considerable amount of passenger traffic by sea. It is probable that nowhere else ir the worh wa then : landing service like that at Timaru, where boats had to be launched, and hauled up over a narrow,

steep, and variable shingle beach. It happened that, owing to a small projecting angle of rock forming a natural groin, at one spot the variations in width and slope of the beach were a minimum, and that spot was selected as the landing place. While the existence of submerged reefs of the coast make Timaru a possible landing place, that small angle of rock

(now buried beneath the approach to the No. 2 Wharf) determined the position of the business part of the town. But for its action as a beachholding groin the first landing place and first business premises would have been further south, as the surveyor who laid out Government Town” (now south of “North” Street) ex-

pected they would be. For launching the stout wooden surf-boats (later on replaced by iron ones) well-greased skids were laid on the shingle slope, and over these the three-keeled boats slid and gained a momentum that carried them with a splash through the breakers. For the return journey a hand-capstan was used to haul the boats over the skids. This was a development from an original system by which small vessels were lightered by their own boats,

the“watersid.ers” of that time being station hands and Maoris from Arowhenua. The first commercial men of Timaru were Captain Cain and H. J. LeCren, the former having charge of a branch store from headquarters at Lyttelton. The partners saw the need for ,an organised lightering service and established one on a small scale. By 1859 a considerable amount of business was being done, and in response to representations the Provincial Government’s immigration agent induced some of the famous Deal boatsmen to come to Timaru, and their experience put the lightering business on a better footing.

In March, 1865 a more efficient set* of appliances was provided by the Canterbury Provincial Council, at a cost of several thousands of pounds. These appliances comprised a large store with sloping, laurch ways, fixed on piles from the interior of the shed to ordinary lowwater line, with steam engine and hoist for hauling the boats into the shed. This “Government Landing Service,” carried on by lessees, did its duty excellently until superseded in the later ’eighties by the completion of the present “inner harbour.” In 1871 a second landing service was established by private enterprise, off the foot of George Street. The natural conditions there were not so favourable, as the beach was altered by every storm, but the plant was ingeniously designed, and the two services got through a lot of work. In 1883, for example—before any wharf was available —there were shipped from Timaru over 29,000 tons of exports, and 33,000 tons of imports were landed. The imports comprised 11,000 tons of general merchandise, nearly 15,000 tons of coal, and over three million feet of timber; and among the exports were 17,000 bales of wood, 210,000 sacks of wheat and oats, nearly 16,000 sacks of flour, and over 10,000 cases of preserved meat. Assuredly the surfboat services were highly useful institutions. The working of the boats, with their 20 to 25ton cargoes, was toilsome and slow, when vessels were anchored far from shore, whether hand-over-hand hauling lines were used or the bluff-bowed boats were propelled by oats. Therefore pressure was put upon the harbourmaster to bring ships findher in. They were brought closer in, from the good holding ground

in a clay bottom to the treacherous sand belt, through which many vessels, large and small, dragged their anchors to the beach. The numerous wrecks gave Timaru a bad name, and raised the rates of freights and insurance. GROWTH OF TRADE.

The growth of the. shipping trade naturally led to the desire for an artificial harbour, but for many years no engineer could be found who gave any hope that a harbour could be successfully constructed. The difficulty in the way, they all said, was the fact that the loose shingle of the beach was continually in motion, with a large balance of motion northwards, so that any harbour that might be constructed to shelter shipping- would cause an accumulation of shingle on the south side, and eventually the shingle must go round the work, and choke the entrance. An open jetty to facilitate the lightering service was proposed, but this was condemned. What was needed was. a harbour to shelter shipping. FIRST HARBOUR PLAN. Several small vessels were wrecked or stranded and refloated in 1869, and these disasters gave life to a demand for a sheltering harbour in suite of the shingle. The advocates of a harbour kept “pegging away,” and in 1874 the Provincial Council voted £-000 to obtain a report from the most eminent marine engineer at Home at that date (Sir John Coode) and voted also £IOO,OOO to carry out any work he might recommend. Sir John Coode sent out an assistant (Mr Elliott) to make surveys and observations and from the data thus obtained Sir John Coode furnished a plan, directions for its execution and an estimate of cost. These documents were eagerly awaited; but when they arrived in 1876, they put a wet blanket on the hopes of getting a harbour made. The estimated cost was £319,000; there was only £IOO,OOO available, and little or no hope of getting any more from the Provincial Council. It was really very fortunate that Sir John Goode’s plan could not be adopted, for if his harbour had been constructed it would have become useless, giving imperfect shelter to a very small space, and with its entrance so far down Caroline Bay that even the Corinna could not have got into or out of it. SUGGESTED PORT AT MILFORD. Timaru being apparently in a hopeless position in regard to the unattainable island-mole harbour, and a mole “solid with the shore” being forbidden by the engineers, some ingenious person suggested that Milford Lagoon, at the mouth of the Opihi, might be converted into a river port. A land-owner in the vicinity (Mr John Hayhurst) employed a civil engineer (Mr Hardy Johnstone) to make a survey and furnish a report and estimate. Mr Johnstone reported

that it would be quite easy to make a good port at Milford and at a moderate cost, by constructing sheet-piling training walls through the shingle beach that divides the lagoon from the sea. Naturally this idea was warmly espoused at Temuka. It was necessary, however, to obtain Government sanction for the construction of any harbour work, and as Sir John Coode was to visit the colony to report to the Government on several other harbour schemes the Milford proposition was also referred to him. After Sir John Coode’s report was published nothing more was heard of the “Milford Lagoon harbour scheme.”

FIRST HARBOUR BOARD. |gg In 1876 the General Assembly passed an Act g|g creating a Timaru Harbour Board, giving the Board borrowing and rating powers, and vest- |||| ing in it the £IOO,OOO that had been voted by HH the Provincial Council for harbour works. Be- §||| fore the Board itself settled down to work two plans for a.harbour were sent to it, unsolicited. HH The Board thought so highly of one of these— §f|§j sent in by Messrs Allan and Stumbles, local con- f||| tractors of that day—that they asked the de- Hit signers f.or details and estimates. Their plan proposed a 3000 feet wall of rubble to high §||| water level capped with concrete and a timber fiH wharf inside, the wall to start some chains south 1111 of the present work and curved tofornra con- |||f siderable area of shelter. The Board could not accept a plan offered in |||| that manner. Competitive plans were invited, prizes of £2OO and £IOO being offered. About a dozen plans were received, and submitted to j|||j a commission of experts. These gentlemen preferred Mr John Goodall’s plan for a mole |||| of concrete hearted with rubble. Tnis plan, modified to one of concrete blocks, capped by jg|j| heavy monoliths, was the. plan adopted and car- |||| ried out. Allan and Stumbles’s plan gained (afp the second prize. Several important modifications were made in Mr Goodall’s plan as the ®||| .work progressed. This work is the “old breakwater” of to-day, of which only the curve gig and the outer kant are exposed to view. |||| Messrs Allen and Stumbles had the first con- f§|§ tract and begun the work in October 1878. Up to half-tide level the mole is built of 40 ton cp|j blocks of concrete and these are capped by uH) huge monoliths filled in, in situ. The blocks |||| were moulded in a yard at the root of the breakwater, lifted on trucks by one powerful pfruj crane, drawn by horses to the end of the work in |||| hand, and deposited in place by another big crane—the one now lying idle in the Harbour elltl Board’s yard. The breakwater was completed e||l in 1887.

The breakwater soon began to trap the shingle, and, as had been foreseen* the waves rapidly drifted away the thin beach along the southern and western sides of the Bay. No harm could be done along the rocky southern side, but from Whales Creek northward heavy seas undermined and broke away the clay sliffs at a rate that was really alarming, seeing that the railway line was so near the coast there. The Harbour Board disclaimed liability for any mischief of that kind' that-might eiisue from their operations. Their legal position was unassailable, as a Royal Commission had approved of their plans and the Governor had sanctioned the work. The Colonial Marine Engineer at the time (Mr Blackett), on-a report from the railway engineer (Mr Lowe) seriously recommended discontinuance of the breakwater construction, and the blowing up of the work already done, in order to allow the shingle to resume its travel and restore the protection to the coast. The Harbour Board prepared a reply to this, a number of old residents testifying that the cliffs had been much cut away before the breakwater was started. The Board had the whip hand legally, and the Railway Department therefore set to work to save the line by railing from Lyttelton some hundreds of tons of heavy rubble, to deposit where it could be conveniently done from railway trucks, and by carting some thousands of tons from a local quarry to be dropped over the higher cliffs. This is the rubble seen along the foot of the Caroline Bay Cliffs to-day.

Mr Carruthers (Mr Blackett’s predecessor) had always insisted that if the shingle stream were dammed at Timaru, the sea would eat away the land on the northward and drive back the beaches of the Waimataitai and Washdyke

Lagoons, and that the effect of the stoppage would he felt one could not say how far northward. This prediction has been, and is being, verified in fact. The clay cliffs had to be protected, and the lagoon beaches have been driven back. Before the breakwater was started the beach ran in a straight line from the Viaduct to the outer face of the Dashing Bocks, and straight northwards from about a chain

inland of the north-east corner of the Dashing Bocks.

In the early ’nineties complaints were made that the farm lands north of the Washdyke lagoon and swamps were being eaten away by the sea, and the Harbour Board was threatened with a claim for compensation. Here again the Board could not be made liable. For some time “Denudation of the Northern Coast” was

a burning question. The fear of mischief presently died away, because the sea, after driving back the Washdyke beach, dug out large quantities of shingle and restored a travelling beach, a process that still continues. THE NOBTH MOLE. Before the concrete mole was completed in 1887 sand had begun to accumulate in Caroline Bay, and also alnogside the wharf attached to the breakwater. Mr Goodall had previously foreseen this, and had planned a rubble wall, commencing from the Benvenue Cliff to keep out the sand. Such a wall would have enclosed T2O acres of water. In 1887 Mr F. W. Marchant—resident engineer at the time—proposed the construction of a north wall of smaller dimensions under the shelter of the mole, and enclosing about 50 acres. This was adopted, and completed in 1890, at a cost of about £20,000. It served its double duty of keeping out the sand and reducing the range at the wharves in heavy seas. Previous to its construction it was impossible to hold ships at the wharves in heavy weather; they had to be hauled off and made fast to,-buoys,, attached to deeply-sunk screw moorings. In consequence of this deficiency of shelter the Government landing service was maintained in working order, and occasionally the anomaly was seen of vessels being tendered by surf boats while the berths at the wharf were occupied. The North Mole, much improved, is now the popular promenade, the “Marine Parade.”

THE SHINGLE QUESTION. The earlier discussions on the alternatives of a breakwater “solid with the shore” and one “with open work,” and those on “denudation,”

were insignificant in .volume and vigour compared with those which raged in the early - ’nineties over “the shingle question”—the question, whether the shingle when the accumulation threatened to injure the harbour by “going round” would choke the entrance, as engineers said it would; or whether the harbour works should be extended, the trapping process be . continued and the evil day postponed. The people of the district took much interest in the matter, and were divided into parties. The “shifters” contended that the annual increment of shingle could be lifted and shifted across the harbour at less cost than the annual interest on the loan for an extension; the “non-shifters” would not hear of spending money without any / permanent benefit. One of their effective arguments was that as far as the shingle had banked up it afforded valuable shelter to the wharf, which elsewhere was so drenched with spray by heavy seas as to put a stop to shipping work there. Another was that the accumulating shingle would grow into a valuable revenue producing asset for the Board. This is being

realised. The Board’s rentals from the reclaimed land are now about £2,300 a year. Various plans were proposed by the “shifters” for transferring across the Bay the annual accretion estimated at 100,000 cubic yards, and an inconclusive experiment was made of one suggested process. A Harbour Board election turned upon the dispute; the “shingle shifters” lost their seats and their influence upon the future operations of the Board. The discussion of the question however continued. A number of engineers were consulted from time to time about various suggested extensions of the works from the end and from the bend, but nothing was done until, about the middle of 1898, the shingle began to drift round the

curve and along the outer kant of the break-

water. A submerged bank extended along the latter, big seas broke on the bank, and charged with shingle pounded the concrete and rapidly ate it away. Incidentally the breakers dashing against the vertical face of the mole made magnificent masses of spray that shot high into the air—a popular spectacle for the towns-

s people. A large sum of money was expended ■ in repairing the concrete and piling loose blocks , outside it. The mischief, howecer, continued, ■ until the outer kant presented the crippled con- . dition it is in to-day. The force of the breakers 1 was such that many of the 40-ton blocks placed i on the 2ft. shelf on the outer side of the mile, were lifted to the top, and some pushed over into the harbour.

A CBITICAL EVENT. The critical event that had been the subject of

many warnings at length occurred. A heavy storm in May, 1899, drifted along the outer arm and deposited in the entrance so much shingle that only a narrow passage was left. Probably this would have happened sooner had not many thousands of tons of shingle been lifted by the waves over the breakwater at the curve, where

the pump dredge then in use easily lifted it. The storm of May lifted over a larger quantity than ever before; but for this safety valve action the entrance might have been completely blocked.

After this experience there was no longer any doubt that something must be done, and the Board’s consulting engineer (Mr J. P. Maxwell) recommended the construction of the rubble work which is now the Eastern Mole. As soon as this work was well under way the “shingle question” was disposed of—for many years. For many years, because the first breakwater only caused accumulation in a comparatively small triangle, the extended work banks up the shingle as far as the hospital corner. Besides disposing of “the shingle question” the construction of the eastern mole has well fulfilled the expectations of those who preferred extension to shifting, in making arrival and departure from the port safe in all weathers and in reducing the “range” from heavy seas outside. Previously during such weather it was difficult or impossible to hold vessels at the wharves, and the Board’s annual bill for big hawsers and log fenders ran into many hundreds of pounds. As for the work done within the moles, this is visible and speaks for itself. ’ This rqtrqspect of the history of Timaru’s excellent little harbour will serve to remind those who lived through the periods of storm and stress that marked its construction, that the theoretical obstacles encountered were as important as the physical ones, neither of them being readily suggested by any appearance of the harbour works to-day. Perseverance in the determination to have a harbour worthy of the trade of the district overcame both, and whatever there may have been of bitterness engendered in the heat of discussion, has all been forgiven and forgotten, in the pride of a great victory over the really huge natural difficulties presented by nature to the making of a harbour at Timaru.