ANOTHER WHITE ELEPHANT.

Observer, Volume XXVII, Issue 40, 22 June 1907, Page 3

ANOTHER WHITE ELEPHANT.

The Harbour Board's Tugboat

Scheme

THE question is being asked at every street comer — " For what

purpose does the Auckland Harbour Board require a steam tug?" And it is a question that cannot readily be answered. Years ago, when the bulk of the trade of the port was done by means of sailing vessels, the utility of a tug was obvious enough. We have, however, some recollection thac even under those conditions, when a serviceable tug, the Awhina, was provided by local enterprise, she did not get sufficient work to make her a paying proposition, and had to be sent to another colony to find a field of usefulness. What prospect, therefore, is there of reasonable employment for a tug now, when nine-tenths of the vessels trading to Auckland are propelled by steam, and wciuld only require the services of a tug in the rarest emergencies ?

But even if it be granted that the port needs a tug, and that one should be provided at the public expense instead of being left to private enterprise, it is more than questionable whether the Harbour Board is going about the ''matter in the proper way. As we understand the Board's intentions, it is proposed to send Home for tenders for a vessel of given dimensions, 900 horse power, -triple expansion engine?, and water-tube boilers — the furnishing of the specifications to answ-er these requirements is to be left to the contractor.. Evidently,

then, the policy of the Harbour Engineer that was so widely condemned with reference to the ferroconcrete wharf contracts is to be perpetuated. Instead of all the details being worked out in the engineer's office, as they should be, and the contractor being required to work to them, the contractor is to be allowed to follow his own notions as to what is required, and the responsibility thrown upon him instead of upon the officials.

If this is to be Auckland's system in regard to harbour works, wherein lay the necessity of importing an engineer at a salary of £1,000 a-year? And why should not the Harbour Board proceed about its business in the same straightforward way as any commercial concern ? Undoubtedly, any business firm ordering a steamship would have specifications drawn up setting out what ie wanted in every detail. Surely the Harbour Board engineer is capable of preparing such a specification. And unless that precaution is taken, the Harbour Board runs an enormous risk of adding yet another exhibit to its already iuteresting collection of white elephants — a risk which, as a public body, it has no right to take. What would be thought of a person who asked a builder to erect for him a ten - roomed house with a verandah round it, and left the builder to work out all the interior arrangements? Yet that is much the kind of system the Harbour Board contemplates with respect to its steam-tug.

Even tbe meagre dptails which the Beard proposes to submit to the Home engineers are meeting with a good deal of criticism from local experts. For instance, how far are water- tube boilers being used for practical nautical purposes? As yet the watertube is in the experimental stage outside the Navy. For Admiralty purposes it is considered to be suitable, on account of the rapidity with which steam can be raised, provided that perfectly pure water can be obtained,. Here, however, comes in a very serious difficulty, as the small modicum of salt contained in the Auckland and other water supplies makes them useless for water- tube boilers. Is the Harbour Board prepared to fall back upon expensive condensers for its boiler supply, as is done by the naval authorities on this station ? And how else does it propose to use such intricate contrivances as water- tube boilers ?

Moreover, let a vessel be procured on the lines proposed, and it is probable that it would develop 900 horsepower at its trial trip, under English conditions, and with the use of the best English coal, and so comply with the particulars laid down. The experience of colonial firms who have had ahips built at Home, however, goes to show that on arrival in the colony, and being tested with colonial fue'., the power has been considerably discounted. Other technical objections to the class of engines proposed are also being raised by experts, into the details of which we have not space to enter just now. Altogether, there is abundant reason to fear that the Harbour Board is going blindly into anotherinvestment that will fallshorfcof its requirements — in homely language, that it proposes to buy a pig in a poke. Its engineering staft ought to be capable of protecting it by planning exactly the vessel that is needed, and should be called upon to do so before the Board commits itself further in the matter.